More than 15,000 homes were still without electricity this Sunday morning, the day after the violent storms which crossed France. These storms caused one death in Rouen and fifteen injuries in the country and caused significant agricultural damage.
” There were 15 injured including two seriously and one person died in Rouen “, announced the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, drawing up for the press the assessment of this unusual meteorological phenomenon. The deceased is a woman washed away by a mudslide and drowned after being trapped under a car in Rouen, where some streets turned into real torrents. Among the two seriously injured is a 13-year-old boy in Indre-et-Loire.
In total, the 2,400 firefighters involved carried out 3,500 interventions and 50,000 lightning strikes were recorded, added the Minister, stressing that these were “ the first time in twenty years that such a vast part of the territory was crossed simultaneously by storms, with 65 departments affected. Météo-France lifted the orange vigilance on Sunday morning “ thunderstorms » for the 25 departments that remained concerned, mainly located in the north-eastern quarter of France.
Damage caused to the vines
Among other damage caused, Gérald Darmanin spoke of “ masterpieces “, in particular bridges ” carried away in Mayenne, and wine-growing. The storm was a real disaster “, the hail having affected vineyards, cereal crops as well as buildings, the president of the FNSEA, Christiane Lambert, told AFP on Sunday.
Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said on France Infothat he would make at the beginning of the afternoon a ” first damage estimate with a view to the possible triggering of the agricultural calamity system. He has already mentioned “ very significant damage to viticulture, arboriculture “.
In the Landes and Gers, hailstones of several centimeters fell on part of the Armagnac vineyard, local winegrowers and officials told AFP.
Claim the insurance
On Sunday, Gérald Darmanin announced that he would propose ” at the end of the week “to decree” the state of natural disaster ” in order to ” allow people to trigger their insurance “. In fact, the lightning lit up the sky both in Brittany and in Centre-Val de Loire, Normandy or Ile-de-France. Amateur photographers have posted images of the top of the Eiffel Tower struck by lightning on the networks.
In Vincennes, east of Paris, the We love green music festival had to be interrupted.
On the national domain of Chambord, in the Loir-et-Cher, 30,000 unit scouts of France gathered for the weekend of Pentecost had to be sheltered, including a third inside the castle itself.
(with AFP)