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David Saint-Sernin
Published on
Sep 9, 2024 at 1:33 PM
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On Saturday, September 7, 2024, the elements were unleashed on certain sectors of the Pyrenees.
The consequences of these torrential rains were disastrous in the Hautes-Pyrénées, near Gavarnie, where roads were cut off and holidaymakers were scared for their lives.
Floods, roads cut off
Flooding also occurred in Aragnouet (Hautes-Pyrénées), where the road turned into a torrent of mud on Saturday morning. Access to the Aragnouet tunnel is still closed from Saint-Lary-Soulan on Monday, September 9, 2024.
In Haute-Garonne, The situation was not as tense, but as elsewhere in the Pyrenees, the rivers turned into tumultuous torrents.
The Pique River reacted strongly in Bagnères-de-Luchon. Its level rose in the space of a few hours.
Lake Oô full as an egg
Another image has been making the rounds on social networks: that of Lac d’Oô, one of the major tourist sites in Haute-Garonne. On the social network X, Météo Pyrénées comments on a video posted by the refuge’s warden: “Lac d’Oô full as an egg”.
We see the water overflowing over the dam. We were no longer used to seeing such images in recent years with the drought.
The village of Oô flooded
Except that this spectacular image had other impacts, much more concrete and difficult, downstream from the lake.
Following the rains recorded over the last ten days, and the severe weather from Friday night to Saturday, the village of Oô, the first village downstream from the lake, was in fact flooded.
On Monday, the municipality cleans
This Monday, September 9, it’s time for cleaning in this small town…
Contacted by Toulouse Newsthe mayor of the commune, Jean-Jacques Rives confirms “that a district south of the village was flooded. We managed to protect the departmental road. Four houses were impacted with flooded yards. The fish farm was also affected with fish mortality. Its manager spent two nights without sleeping. This Monday, we are cleaning, we are talking with the people affected, everyone is upset, it’s a bit normal…”.
Floods follow one another
It must be said that floods have been occurring one after the other in Oô for several years. Since the terrible flood of 2013 which particularly affected Saint-Béat, this is the third time that this town has been flooded.
“There was 2013, 2018, and now 2024… Being flooded like this for the third time in ten years is quite worrying. The difference this time is that it’s happening in September, which is very, very rare. We’ve been getting rain with storms for several days, then it rained a lot on Friday and Saturday. During the night from Friday to Saturday, the water went over the dam of Lake Oô, but beyond that, all the waterfalls and small streams that flow down the mountain at the Astau barns were at their maximum flow.”
Few water releases this summer
An aggravating factor for the municipality is that at the beginning of September, Lake Oô displayed a high level of water storage for the season.
Used to support the low water level of the Garonne during periods of drought, the volume of water in the lake is far from having been damaged this summer compared to the summers of 2022 and 2023, when the level had dropped spectacularly following significant destocking to support the level of the river.
“There were fewer releases than in other years,” confirms the mayor.
Limited drought: Lake Oô was full
When the flood hit on Friday, the lake was almost at its maximum storage capacity. It could therefore not be filled initially to smooth out the rise in water levels.
Finally, the work currently being carried out to change the vertiginous pipes which bring water to the Bagnères-de-Luchon power station is reducing the capacity to evacuate water from the lake, other than via the Neste.
“We limited the damage”
“Compared to other Pyrenean valleys, we have limited the damage,” the mayor nevertheless believes. “And thanks to good communication, we were able to prevent some hikers from going up when the rivers were already very high.”
This Monday, the elected official was now to have the damage assessed by the administrative services.
EDF Hydro: “Lake Oô has overflowed for the second time since 2013”
On Monday evening, September 9, EDF Hydro confirmed to Actu Toulouse the exceptional nature of what happened on the night of Friday to Saturday: “Lake Oô overflowed for the second time since the floods of 2013, the last being in June 2018.”
EDF Hydro also confirms the feelings of the mayor of Oô with figures: the lake was almost full at the time of the heavy rains: “The 42 ha reservoir has a storage capacity of 15 million m3. Before this episode of heavy rains, the lake had a filling rate of 95% of its total capacity at the end of last week. EDF Hydro also indicates that it has taken measures to limit the effects of a flood downstream:
“EDF Hydro mobilized from Friday morning to operate the turbines at their maximum capacity, namely 3.5 m3/second in order to limit the outgoing flow downstream. The fact of operating the turbine very quickly made it possible to reduce the outgoing flow by 20% compared to the incoming flow, and thus to limit the quantity of water downstream of the development.”
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