by a river of mud, water, vegetation and refuse from the village. At about 11:50 a.m., as the showers dissipated, the extent of the damage was made evident: the junta de freguesia (), main access to the hamlet, and electricity were cut off (although EDA, the local utility, was able to put the village on generators quickly). As some villagers congregated in the primary school and local church, some were immediately evacuated to the tourist village of Cuada to the south of parish. On 13 June 2012, the Secretaria Regional da Ciência, Tecnologia e Equipamentos (Regional Secretariat for Science, Technology and Equipment) awarded the contract for construction of two retaining walls, construction of ditches and new paving of the parish to Tecnovia Açores, S.A. in order to improve access to the region following the mudslides. Geography The parish is located on the west coast of the Flores, south of the Fajã Grande, and extends through an irregular plain that includes four crater-lakes: Lagoa Funda (Deep Lake, which is deep), Lagoa Comprida (Long Lake), Lagoa Branca (White Lake), and Lagoa Seca (Dry Lake). It is an area of many peat-bogs, and forests of endemic plants, including the cedro-do-mato (Azorean juniper), used by local artisans. Nearby is the waterfall, Cascata da Ribeira Grande. Fajãzinha is intersected by the Ribeira Grande, a major river/rapids on the island, which, apart from its crystalline waters, is known for its innumerable floods. Father José António Camões, in his work Roteiro Exacto da Costa da Ilha, mentions the following: Passing that population you will encounter Ribeira Grande, which divides this parish...its exaggerated force and impetuousness, which is truly great. The waters fall from a formidable height, extreme in the parish of Fajãzinha, from a height of 200 braças [] it falls; it incorporates and aggregates all the waters of the headlands, which demarcate the parish, from the east to southwest, which is the river-valley of the blacksmiths, four grottoes, without name in the Rocha do Velho, the grotto do Enchente, whose waters increase in volume and become furious in the winter, and also when there is rain in the summer, its invariable. The region is a natural jewel, that João Vieira wrote: “Along the difficult, the hand of man, with much sweat, constructed a church and houses, opened a road where heavy trucks cross, means of communication with the rest of the island. It's an admirable example