One person was reported dead Wednesday - while the search was on for three missing - as rainstorms continued to lash island groups belonging to Spain and Portugal for a second day. According to dpa, Spain's Canary Islands and Madeira, a Portuguese archipelago located in the Atlantic, about 1,000 kilometres off the mainland, were especially hard hit, though the storm was weakening over Madeira. A man was seriously injured when he fell into the sea in Machico on Madeira Island on Wednesday, officials said. He was trying to moor a boat carrying several Germans, which had gone adrift amid high waves. The man, who was identified as a local official, died later at hospital. Portuguese maritime police were, meanwhile, searching for two fishermen whose boat had gone missing off Algarve in continental Portugal amid a storm. Spanish rescuers were also looking for a Russian tourist who had gone missing from a beach on Gran Canaria Island. Storms temporarily cut power on La Palma Island, where flood water inundated buildings. Schools were closed on the Canaries, where the authorities decreed the highest alarm level.
