A short but intense episode. The department of Hérault, which had been placed on red alert for rain and flooding at the start of Saturday afternoon, due to very heavy rainfall, returned to orange alert until 8 p.m., just like the Gard and Lozère, indicates Météo-France.
The “not very mobile and lasting stormy rains over the Cévennes” are shifting “slowly towards the plains of Hérault and Gard”, observes the meteorological institute in its latest bulletin this Saturday. Earlier in the afternoon, he had placed the department, subject to intense rainfall since the middle of the night, on red alert, estimating that “the importance of the expected accumulations” required “absolute” attention.
Road and rail axes cut
Due to these “rare stormy rains in the Cévennes”, “more than 500 mm” of precipitation was recorded locally at 4:30 p.m. in the upper cantons of Hérault, “and 170 to 190 mm in the Gard Cévennes” , specifies Météo-France.
“The upper cantons of Lodève, between Bédarieux and Ganges, are experiencing a lull” and “heavy precipitation (between 70 and 100 mm per hour) is currently affecting the Saint-Martin-de-Londres sector,” notes the prefecture. of Hérault, which activated a crisis unit. In total, “38 people have been brought to safety in the Roqueredonde and Lodève sector since last night” but “no casualties have been reported”, she continues, specifying that the precipitation should now “shift towards Castries and Lunel”, further east of the department.
“Several roads are cut north of Bédarieux and in the Lodève sector due to rising water levels, landslides and landslides” while “sectors of the secondary network are closed as a preventive measure”, further details Prefecture. The railway line between Bédarieux and Millau is also closed, she adds, following a 500 m collapse due to heavy accumulations of water.
An expected improvement at the end of the day
The rivers of Orb and Lergue “are in flood and roads are flooded”, indicated in a press release the Hérault firefighters, inviting the inhabitants of the sectors “of Lodevois, le Bousquet d ‘Orb, Bédarieux” to “observe the greatest caution” and “avoid moving”.
Météo-France also warns that “cumulations reaching 100 mm are possible in the foothills (Cévennes) or even in the plain” and that “strong gusts of wind under thunderstorms are also possible”, before conditions improve in end of day Saturday.
This rainy-stormy episode, which began during the night from Friday to Saturday, notably caused flooding in the morning in the town of Lunas, north of Hérault, where the flood of the Orb swept away “several cars » and flooded “several houses in a hamlet located on the edge of the watercourse”, without causing any casualties, the mayor of Lunas, Aurélien Manenc, who is also a firefighter, testified to AFP.