With Storm Ciaran barely coming to an end, a new depression, Domingos, is now expected in France on the evening of this Saturday, November 4. 11 departments have already been placed on orange vigilance by Météo France for this day, particularly in the west of the country. Bouches-du-Rhône, Charente, Charente-Maritime, Corse-du-Sud, Haute-Corse, Gironde, Pas-de-Calais, Deux-Sèvres, Var, Vendée as well as Vienna are currently concerned, for the risks of violent winds, waves and submersion, rain and floods or even floods. To these will be added the Alpes-Maritimes on Sunday, while 74 other departments are placed on yellow alert this Saturday.
Visiting Brittany on Friday, Emmanuel Macron called on the French to “remain extremely vigilant” in the coming days, in particular because of “structures which remain fragile” after the passage of storm Ciaran. “We have a fight, which is to restore normal life as quickly as possible,” he declared during his trip to Plougastel-Daoulas (Finistère), claiming to aim for a restoration of electric current in 90% of affected households. ‘here until Monday. According to a press release from Enedis this Saturday morning, 260,000 homes are still without electricity today, “particularly in Brittany (200,000) and Normandy (51,000)”.
“Natural disaster”
But this is precisely where the new depression expected this Saturday evening, Domingos, could pose a problem. Météo-France expects “another strong gale on the Atlantic coast”, with “gusts of 120 kilometers per hour on the coasts”. Enough to hamper efforts to repair the damage from storm Ciaran, while Brittany was hit by record winds, up to 207 kilometers per hour at Pointe du Raz, which tore down trees, roofs and power lines.
The human toll from Ciaran is also “heavy”, declared Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne visiting a Caen fire station on Friday morning, with 2 dead and 47 injured in the territory. According to AFP, a third person died on Thursday after falling into the water in the Sugiton cove, near Marseille. According to a witness cited by the police, she was swept away by a wave, while the Bouches-du-Rhône department was placed on orange alert for wave-submersion.
Emmanuel Macron promised a state of “natural disaster” and “agricultural calamity”, “wherever we can do it” and praised the organization of relief, which “made it possible to save many lives”, estimating that this event had been “well managed”.