Express Weather / Benjamin Estrade
On the right, the century-old sequoia of Augé in Deux-Sèvres, a few seconds before its explosion.
WEATHER – Sawed in two by lightning. In the small town of Augé, in Deux-Sèvres, one detail immediately catches the eye: the century-old sequoia, which stands majestically as the highest point of the village. But this Sunday, June 30, the village woke up without its tree. The day before, in the morning, lightning pulverized it in the space of a few seconds.
“The noise was resounding in the town center,” village mayor Lauren Baloge told BFMTV. “It’s the emblem of the center of our village that fell to the ground”, he then declared. As you can see in the video below, lightning struck the redwood in the morning as a storm roared over the village. After a brief flash of light, the tree burst in all directions.
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And “the images are very impressive, the consequences nevertheless remain minor”, however, the mayor clarified. The tree was located in the courtyard of a hotel-restaurant “The Slate”, opened four years ago just after Covid-19. The managers used to organize concerts at its foot in the summer, reports France 3.
When the tree exploded, debris was violently thrown onto the roofs of the hotel and restaurant, as well as the gas tank. The owner’s van parked nearby was also dented on all sides. “ We have two ripped roofs, and my vehicle was in the yard, so I’ll let you imagine,” describes the manager to France Blue. « Basically, it’s a Volkswagen transporter, converted into a holiday van: there it looks like a Mini Austin! »
In addition to the explosion of this century-old sequoia, firefighters from Deux-Sèvres intervened at fifteen locations in the department on Saturday, June 29. Lightning notably started three fires, on a shed, a frame and an electric meter.
The Deux-Sèvres were placed on orange storm alert from the morning by Météo France, as were around twenty departments during the day, mainly in the south and east of France. These orange alerts are now lifted this Sunday, June 30, but “the risk of storms persists in Rhône-Alpes”, specifies the forecaster in his latest bulletin. Furthermore, these heavy rains feed the torrents: Isère and Savoie are on yellow flood alert.
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