In Guadeloupe, the respite born from the end of confinement on Saturday around 3 p.m. (9 p.m. in Paris) was short-lived. After the passage of Hurricane Tammy, the archipelago indeed suffered new bad weather on Sunday. Torrential rains have fallen since the middle of the night, swelling rivers which burst their banks and caused local flooding.
The Minister Delegate for Overseas Territories, Philippe Vigier, is expected on site this Monday, for a trip planned until Wednesday. He should take stock of the damage, according to a prefectural source.
Alert level lowered to “orange”
Authorities issued a “red” alert for heavy rain and thunderstorms at 6 a.m. Sunday. The level was lowered to “orange” at midday, but calls for caution remained. The safe shelters, closed after Tammy’s departure, have reopened in the communities, notably in the town of Basse-Terre, where homes in Rivière des Pères were once again threatened by water.
“We did not have people to evacuate, even if some citizens had water in their homes,” confided Marie-Yveline Ponchateau, mayor of Baillif, where the river has largely overflowed its banks. On the other hand, “the municipal roads were damaged in several points,” she added. In Vieux-Habitants, a bridge collapsed, local media reported.
Localized power outages
The drinking water supply has also been affected. Almost all factories, particularly those in Basse-Terre, were at a standstill or experiencing production difficulties on Sunday afternoon. The network manager had also recommended not consuming water after the passage of the hurricane, asking to wait for advice from the regional health agency (ARS).
Localized power outages were also reported. “We still have 2,000 unpowered customers in the Trois-Rivières area, but this is being managed,” assured an EDF representative.
Heavy rain expected in Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy
Guadeloupe was generally spared Saturday by the cyclonic phenomenon, apart from the small island of Désirade, in the east of the archipelago, where the winds “caused a lot of material damage”, indicated Loïc Tonton, mayor of this commune. of around 1,400 inhabitants. In addition to falling trees, damage to equipment has been reported. According to him, up to 80% of the island was without electricity at the peak of the phenomenon.
Sunday around 5 p.m., Tammy continued its route northwest of the West Indies, after passing off the “Northern Islands”, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy. The prefect of these two French territories lifted the red cyclone alert at 8 a.m., while maintaining an orange vigilance for rain, which could reach 100 mm at the end of the day and during the night.