Major floods in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Landes, landslides in the Hautes-Pyrénées

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The heavy precipitation, added to the snowmelt at altitude, caused significant flooding and flooding, this Friday afternoon, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Landes, placed in red vigilance, and in particular in Bayonne where the Nive is out of bed.

“Despite one injured person, we have had no serious accidents or deaths, it must be said that firefighters have intervened more than 250 times in recent hours,” said the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin in late afternoon, after making a point with the prefects. He did not give further details about the injured person.

An unstable snowpack

“The situation is under control”, assured France 3 Aquitaine the prefect Eric Spitz, explaining this sudden rise in water levels by the “exceptional” rains and the arrival of a southerly wind which caused the snowpack of the Pyrenees to melt. , further swelling the waterways. This also makes the snow cover unstable and Météo-France has placed the risk of avalanches in the Pyrenees from “strong” to “very strong”. “Our concern,” said Eric Spitz, “goes especially in the Laruns sector where 100 mm of water should still fall and where the snowmelt will cause an additional 40 mm”. In this Béarn town of nearly 1,200 inhabitants, the sloping streets were crossed by water from the Gave d’Ossau.

According to the prefect, in Bayonne, around fifty people had to be evacuated from Petit Bayonne, at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers. Onlookers gathered there to capture images of the Nive overflowing on the quays. So much so that the loudspeakers playing Christmas music repeated calls for caution. The prefecture has banned the rugby match between Aviron Bayonnais and US Montauban, scheduled for Friday evening at the Jean-Dauger stadium in Bayonne. Mayor Jean-René Etchegaray has asked businesses along the Nive to remain closed, while with the rains and the tide, the level of the river could still rise at the end of the day. “We also expect a long swell from the north-west on the Basque coast during the episode that could thwart the flow in the estuaries”, underlines Météo France.

Several hundred people evacuated

In the middle of the day, the crude red vigilance was decreed by Vigicrues in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, but also the neighboring Landes where the level of the Adour worries and where the gaves of Pau and Oloron caused flooding in Peyrehorade. In this area, specified Gérald Darmanin, “we have started population evacuations, particularly in 4 municipalities in the Landes, more than 400 people are concerned”. “It is now the Landes which are the most concerned”, he assured. In addition, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, 18 schools in the department and two colleges were closed, and roads cut.

In the Hautes-Pyrénées, around sixty roads were closed to traffic. According to the SNCF, train traffic was interrupted between Bayonne and St-Jean-Pied-de-Port following a “landslide on the railway”. The A63 towards Bordeaux was flooded in the Bayonne sector, according to Vinci, who reports that entry is prohibited for all vehicles in Bayonne-sud, and exit is compulsory. At the start of the afternoon, according to Enedis, there were “700 customers without electricity in the Basque Country, 300 in Béarn and 1,000 in the Hautes-Pyrénées”. In addition, landslides took place in Biriatou, south of Hendaye, along the Spanish border, where around twenty residents had to be relocated.

Landslides

Further inland, in Itxassou, bad weather caused “the partial collapse of a hill” Thursday during the day, without causing any victims. In this village of 2,000 inhabitants, Jean-Claude, 37, scooped 40 cm of water from the Nive in his house “which was new” and suffered its second flood in less than seven years. “In 2014, we were told that it was the centennial flood, and there it is already starting again”, he laments to a correspondent.

Three landslides also took place in the Cauterets sector, damaging the telephone and Internet network installations, according to a press release from the prefecture. “A person on dialysis was evacuated by the emergency services with the support of the gendarmerie helicopter,” said the authorities, who reinforced the medical teams on the spot.


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