The violent thunderstorms, storms and torrential rains which swept through Switzerland, France, Germany and Italy this Saturday, June 29, left at least seven dead, according to the first reports given on Sunday, June 30, by local authorities.
3 min
Three elderly people died Saturday evening, crushed by a tree on board their car in the department of Aube, in the northeast of France, due to strong storms and winds, AFP learned from the prefecture on Sunday. These three people were ” septuagenarians and octogenarians “, as well as a fourth passenger, still in absolute emergency, specifies the prefecture.
In Switzerland, four people have died after a landslide caused by torrential rain in the south-east of the country, the police of the canton of Ticino said in a statement on Sunday. According to the local daily The Region, two of the four people who died were German-Swiss women who had come to spend vacations in the region. Furthermore, nearly seventy people are being evacuated from a holiday camp in Mogno. The emergency services are also studying the best way to evacuate 300 people who came for a football tournament in Peccia, police said, adding that no one was injured.
Rescue operations are particularly difficult due to bad weather conditions, she explained earlier. Several valleys close to the Maggia valley are no longer accessible and the electricity has been cut. Part of the canton also finds itself without drinking water, according to the federal alert system Swissalert.
Overflow of the Rhone and its tributaries
A large part of Switzerland has been crossed since Saturday June 29 in the afternoon by violent thunderstorms accompanied by very heavy rainfall.
In northern Italy, the Aosta Valley is also affected and Internet users have broadcast spectacular images of floods and rivers with muddy water furiously rushing down the mountain.
A critical situation is unfolding in some alpine valleys across northwest Italy, where persistent torrential rainfall associated with severe thunderstorms is now causing life-threatening flash flooding. This is footage from Noasca in the Orco Valley. Credit: Pro-Loco Noasca pic.twitter.com/u4GkzvxQ45
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) June 29, 2024
Further west, overflows of the Rhone and its tributaries, swollen by torrential rains and melting snow, led to the evacuation of several hundred people and the closure of many roads, according to local authorities in Valais. Several hundred people were evacuated », after the Rhône overflowed in different places, notably between Rarogne and Gampel or even in Chippis and Sierre, underline the civil security services of the canton of Valais (in the south-west) in a press release released on Sunday.
” Overflows and debris flows [des coulées de boue et de rochers] along lateral watercourses took place », notably forcing the closure to traffic of the Simplon pass road, a major artery for international but also cantonal traffic. Many other roads are closed in Valais. Rail traffic is also disrupted in part of the canton.
Significant damage and traffic disruption
Switzerland has already experienced violent storms and exceptional rainfall over the weekend, causing at least one death and significant damage in the south-east of its territory. Two people remain missing, while it is being verified whether the body of a woman found on Thursday is one of them. The town of Morges, not far from Lausanne, had also been particularly affected by flooding.
The A13 motorway, an important artery for road traffic between the north and south of Europe, is cut near Lostallo, in the canton of Graubünden, and will only be reopened to traffic on a single lane at the beginning of July .