THERE are close links between this Island and Madeira, but it goes without saying that there are also major differences between our two communities.

To cite just one example, we enjoy a climate that is almost always benign. Even if our weather is all too often cold and wet, we are not prone to the extremes that sometimes affect our distant Atlantic neighbour.

However, the rarity in our temperate climes of extreme weather and the natural disasters that it can cause did nothing to prevent Islanders from empathising with the suffering caused by the horrific floods that Madeira endured 12 months ago. Indeed, the response to a tragedy which affected not only those Madeirans living at home but also the many who have settled temporarily or permanently in Jersey was immediate and impressive.

This was very much in line with Jersey’s track record of generosity in times of tragedy abroad, but the reaction will have served to strengthen ties between two linked islands.

A campaign organised by the charity Side by Side ultimately raised £100,000, money which is now being used to build an extension to a retirement home for elderly people left homeless by the floods. That home is in the village of Ribeira Brava, a place having especially firm connections with Jersey’s Madeiran community which, like too many others, was devastated by water, mud and a cascade of giant boulders when the flash floods struck.

Yesterday the people of Ribeira Brava and many thousands of others throughout Madeira packed churches to mark the first anniversary of the floods, which claimed 42 lives as well as rendering hundreds homeless. Appropriately, the commemoration was mirrored here, with special services in the Island’s Roman Catholic churches.

Madeira has now rebuilt destroyed and damaged buildings and has restored vital infrastructure such as roads, water mains and electricity cables. As a result, visitors to the island, which is heavily dependent on tourism, may now find it difficult to appreciate the scale of what happened a year ago.

That said, Jersey people who go to Madeira as tourists or to visit their
native island will know that this Island has played a small but symbolically very important part in the effort to restore normality.