Clear the mud and tree branches: the time has come for cleaning and recession on Friday October 18 after the damage caused the day before in many municipalities in the Center-East by exceptional rains which reached up to 700 millimeters in Ardeche.
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The red “flood” or “rain-flood” alert was lifted in the six affected departments – Rhône, Loire, Haute-Loire, Ardèche, Lozère and Alpes-Maritimes -, but ten in the southern half remain affected by orange vigilance, Météo France indicated in its 10 a.m. bulletin on Friday October 18.
This episode, “ rainy, requiring special monitoring due to its intensity and duration “, will hit Friday morning again” a large part of the former Midi-Pyrénées region, progressing slowly towards the south », specifies Météo France, predicting “ a loss of intensity during the afternoon “.
Firefighters and all emergency services carried out 2,300 interventions which made it possible to “ save lives » during bad weather, noted Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Friday, assuring that France had not experienced “ Cévennes episode of such violence for 40 years “. Twenty-five people were airlifted by firefighters, and some spent the night in accommodation centers opened by the authorities. Three minor injuries were recorded.
Nearly 3,000 firefighters remain mobilized on Friday, as well as law enforcement officers. A gendarmerie helicopter must carry out reconnaissance over the disaster areas to assess the damage.
Continued decline
In the Ardèche town of Annonay, crossed by two rivers and whose town center had been suddenly flooded, “ the decline began yesterday afternoon. There is no new damage, service workers are clearing the wood and mud » in the streets, Mathieu Cadeau, communications manager at the town hall, told AFP.
Passers-by walk cautiously on the piles of mud left by the flood. Brooms in hand, the traders of Place des Cordeliers push the mud onto the road, while a backhoe loader cleans the road. In the shops, shopkeepers are busy sorting what can still be saved.
In this department, the volume of cumulative rain reached 700 mm in the Cévennes, 465 mm on the Ardèche plateau and 150 to 170 mm for the Annonay basin, and “ as far as watercourses are concerned, the decline continues », Specifies the Ardèche prefecture on Friday.
State of natural disaster soon to be declared
“ We are facing something massive », Commented on BFM TV/RMC the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who must go there during the day. “ We are facing episodes linked to climate change and flooding. “, she continued, calling for people to prepare for it.
The government will declare “ as soon as possible » the state of natural disaster, which makes it possible to activate insurance, assured on France Info the Minister Delegate in charge of everyday security, Nicolas Daragon, referring to a “ ten days “.
4,000 homes deprived of electricity, the A47 still closed
Some 4,000 homes are still without electricity, half of them in the Loire, the others in Haute-Loire, Ardèche and the Rhône, according to a report from Enedis this Friday morning.
On the eve of the All Saints’ Day school holidays, schools will not open in Ardèche, in 51 communes in the Rhône and 39 in the Loire.
Train traffic has resumed along the coast in the Alpes-Maritimes but remains interrupted in Occitanie, particularly around Toulouse, and between Lyon and Saint-Etienne.
The A47 motorway, submerged by the rise of the Gier river, remains closed at Givors, south of Lyon. Pumping water is already underway but it may take a very long time. The water is muddy with waste. The other issue is the evacuation of vehicles then the cleaning and checking of the structures and the road in general. », according to the prefecture.