Nine departments are still on orange alert this Sunday afternoon, for “floods” and/or “submersion waves”. The south-east of the country was affected by a marked Mediterranean episode on Saturday, with torrential rains falling. In Gard, where six people were missing this Sunday morning, three bodies were found, in Gagnières and Goudargues. A man is also wanted in Ardèche.
“The people’s vehicles have been found, but not the people as I speak to you“, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in the morning, from the Operational Center for Interministerial Crisis Management at Place Beauvau.
Three bodies found in Gard
Six people were wanted in Gard on Sunday morning, following bad weather. Three bodies were finally discovered, the prefecture announced in the afternoon.
The remains of a 62-year-old man were found by emergency services in Gagnières. A car with two occupants, of Belgian nationality, had been carried away by the waves while passing over a submersible bridge Saturday evening, around 8 p.m. The other man in the car managed to escape alone before help arrived.
Two people were also found in Goudargues in a vehicle. Sunday morning at 5:10 a.m., two women aged 47 and 50 who were going to Spain had called for help, claiming to be “in trouble“on a submersible deck, and the contact had”was lost during the call ” according to the Gard prefecture.
According to information from France Bleu, a man and his two children aged 4 and 13 were swept away by the waters in their car on a Dions bridge around 11:30 p.m., during the night from Saturday to Sunday. The mother was rescued by firefighters. A helicopter flew over the area to try to find the victims but only the vehicle, a white car, was found downstream of the submersible bridge. In total, 180 firefighters are involved.
In total, 250 firefighters were mobilized during the night from Saturday to Sunday, and four gendarmerie helicopters. Reinforcements coming “Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse and Hérault” were called, “and a helicopter coming down from Lyon“mobilized.”We are starting to drop in water levels, the peaks have passed, but the rivers are still extremely high“, explained the secretary general of the Gard prefecture, who “strongly renews the messages of caution to the entire population of Gard“. According to him, “we have to go back 10 years, to 2014, to find an event of this magnitude in the department“.
A man wanted in Ardèche
According to the Ardèche prefecture, a 70-year-old man is also missing since Saturday evening, in Saint-Martin-de-Valamas. It’s about of the person in charge of the municipality’s hydroelectric power station. He was responding to the scene following bad weather, but his colleagues, having heard nothing from him, alerted the emergency services who found his wallet and his phone. A research system has been set up, adds the prefecture.
Four young people, trapped in their car, were rescued by firefighters in Ardèche, in Berrias-et-Casteljau. Seven animals died in the collapse of a hangar, still in the department.
“35 rescues” according to Gérald Darmanin
From the crisis unit set up at Place Beauvau, the Minister of the Interior praised the work of “civil security forces and in particular firefighters“. According to Gérald Darmanin, there was “35 rescues” but “we have not found any trace of the missing. So, I can’t comment on their status unfortunately.“.
Gérald Darmanin recalled that four helicopters, three from Civil Security and one from the gendarmerie, were mobilized. Drones have also been deployed.
Thousands of homes without electricity
According to Enedis, approximately 11,550 homes are without electricity this Sunday afternoon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region. In Ardèche, 3,200 homes are still without electricity. There are 1,900 left in Drôme. In the morning, 5,100 homes were without power in these two departments.
In the Rhône, 600 homes are still without power. There are 400 of them in the Loire. These outages are linked to strong gusts of wind on Saturday evening, peaking at 172 km/h on Mont Mézenc, then at “heavy snowfall tonight, particularly in Drôme-Ardèche“, specifies Enedis. According to the company, “400 employees from Enedis and service companies are mobilized in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region to restore power to our customers”. Sunday morning, 1,950 homes were deprived of electricity in Haute-Loire
On the Côte d’Azur, power cuts were mainly caused by heavy rains, explains the manager of the electricity distribution network. 3,500 customers are still affected this Sunday afternoon. They were 4,500 at 10:30 a.m. In detail, 1,000 homes are without power in the Var and 2,500 in the Alpes-Maritimes. “Access conditions have a strong impact on technician interventions”including flooded areas in the Var and the clearing of snow-covered roads in the Alpes-Maritimes, specifies Enedis.
Residents evacuated in Var and Alpes-Maritimes
In the Var, it fell up to 160 millimeters in Méounes, at the foot of Sainte Baume in the west of the department, according to the prefecture. Since this Saturday, around a hundred residents were evacuated preventively: 60 people in Fréjus and 30 in Hyères. In total, 17 motorists were brought to safety and five people had to be relocated. Eight roads are also closed this Sunday.
In the Alpes-Maritimeshe fell until 125 millimeters of rain in Caussols. In Mandelieu-la-Napoule, “the campsites were evacuated as were a tourist residence and the inhabitants of the ground floor of a neighborhood“, indicated Sébastien Leroy, the mayor, on franceinfo this Sunday morning. Several were relocated to the hotel or in a gymnasium transformed into a reception center. A municipal agent was slightly injured during an intervention In Nice, parks, gardens, cemeteries, and the coastal path remain closed until further notice, according to France Bleu Azur.
In Avignon in Vaucluse, the traffic lanes along the Rhône have been closed since 10:30 a.m. this Sunday, due to the predicted flood.