As Ciaran moves east and hits Italy hard, in France it’s time for a first assessment. According to a first estimate, the storm could cost almost 500 million.
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Roofs torn off, crushed cars and broken windows… After the passage of storm Ciaran, “ the damage is considerable », Explained the deputy mayor of Coutances, in Normandy, Etienne Savary. Here, the sidewalks of the city center are still littered with slates fallen from roofs. “ We were prepared, but we didn’t expect this “, he added.
In Pas-de-Calais, where the Liane and the Hem experienced flooding “ exceptional » according to the Vigicrues website, villages still had their feet in the water on Friday. In Corsica, many boats were swept onto the docks in Porto, a hamlet on the west coast of the island.
Insurers are still quantifying the amount of damage, but the company Risk Weather Tech gives its first estimates: storm Ciaran, which caused the death of 16 people in Europe, could cost between 370 and 480 million euros. euros.
Read alsoIn Europe, storm Ciaran kills more than a dozen people
480 million euros is a little more than storm Alex in 2020, but much less than many episodes of recent decades. The storms of December 1999, for example, cost nearly 7 billion euros. For Xynthia, in 2010, the economic impact amounted to more than a billion euros.
To explain this currently limited cost of Ciaran, insurers put forward several arguments: it was briefer and less extensive than many storms in recent years. But above all, prevention was effective by sending messages to residents not to take their cars. Measures which made it possible to reduce material damage by almost 30%, specifies the company Risk Weather Tech.
In order to facilitate the handling of damage, Emmanuel Macronon a visit to Brittany, after welcoming the relief action, promised the state of “ natural disaster » and the “ agricultural calamity “, ” wherever we can do it “.
Read alsoStorm Ciaran: has France learned the lessons of past disasters?