The center-west is still on orange alert this Thursday, December 14 for flood risks. Rivers are also still on orange alert.
Météo France still places five central-west departments in New Aquitaine on orange alert for floods, these are Corrèze, Dordogne, Gironde, Charente-Maritime, Charente. To the east, Isère is no longer concerned by vigilance. Vigicrues also maintains orange vigilance on eight rivers, still in New Aquitaine. The watercourses concerned are the Garonne-Dordogne confluence, the Dronne aval, the Isle aval, the Vézère aval, the Boutonne aval, the Charente upstream, the Charente aval and the Seudre.”
The departments concerned have been seeing significant flooding for several days. The Dordogne is particularly affected by flooding after water rises of several meters where certain roads are blocked and houses affected as France Bleu clarified this Tuesday, December 12. BFMTV indicated that a similar situation was also recorded in the town of Montignac-Lascaux after the Vézère burst its banks. Agence France Presse adds that the town of Coutras, still in Gironde on the banks of the Dronne, saw plains and fields flooded as well as certain houses.
In Charente-Maritime, the town of Saintes was forced to evacuate 142 inmates from the town’s remand center. The prefecture published a press release relayed by AFP in which it indicated that “due to the peak of the flood expected during the day on Thursday in the Charente basin”, “the 142 detainees of the prison Saintes stop will be evacuated tomorrow to other penitentiary establishments. According to Sud-Ouest, the detainees in question will be transferred to Troyes prison in Aube. The town of Saintes has already faced a similar situation in 2021 during a previous episode of flooding.