The department had been placed on orange alert for thunderstorms. The prefecture announced that five people had been hospitalized, notably for hypothermia. The material damage was heavy due to the rising waters.
Water flooded the entire department on Saturday, July 20. Fifteen departments were placed on orange alert for storms, and Haute-Marne suffered the most significant damage. The department’s prefecture reported that five people were hospitalized, “mainly for hypothermia.” According to the same source, emergency services carried out 80 interventions due to the rising waters, which caused damage to roads and also to homes. Around sixty homes are without electricity, “34 people were evacuated to the Sexfontaines community center,” and six departmental roads are still closed.
It must be said that this “intense stormy episode”, predicted by Meteo Francebrought torrential rain. Between Bologna, Marault, Annéville-la-Prairie and Meures, “ten times more rain fell in one hour than during a normal episode,” the prefecture informed around one o’clock in the morning.
The Haute-Marne Departmental Council, for its part, mentioned a stormy episode that occurred around 11 p.m. in the Bologne area, where “the damage was significant with more than a meter of water in the streets and then in the houses in a few minutes.”
Risks remain
Météo-France ended the alert around 2am. Although the orange alert has been lifted across France, state services specify that, “the ground being waterlogged” after this rainy episode, any intense precipitation could lead to “a rapid rise in water levels”. Rain is expected for Sunday, with thunderstorms in the evening, but the precipitation should be over.