The departments of Ardèche and Drôme are placed on yellow alert for wind by Météo-France until Monday January 13, at noon.
Gusts at 127 km/h at the Croix de Millet
According to Rémi Voirin, forecaster at Météo-France, the strongest gusts of wind were recorded late last night. “In the two stations in the South Drôme, gusts were recorded at 85 km/h in Montélimar and 102 km/h in Visan (Vaucluse, editor's note). In Ardèche, a strong north wind sweeps the department, particularly the hills, with readings of 127 km/h at the Croix de Millet, 120 km/h in Berzème and another 80 km/h in Lanas. Rémi Voirin specifies: “Gusts of between 80 and 90 km/h are still expected this Sunday afternoon in the lower Rhône valley, before returning to normal on Monday afternoon.”
Since this Sunday morning, January 12, the Drôme and Ardèche firefighters have been called upon numerous times for damage linked to these strong gusts of wind.
A tree falls on a car
In Ardèche, many tree branches fell onto the road. In Villeneuve-de-Berg, a telephone cable was torn. In Annonay, a tree fell on a car, fortunately empty of occupants. In Vals-les-Bains, the sheet metal of a swimming pool was torn off.
The tree fell on the roadway in Vernoux. Photo Le DL/Christian Prost
A tree falls in Vernoux
Still between midnight and 6 a.m., this Sunday, January 12, a dry pine tree was uprooted by the violent gusts of the north wind on the RD 21 at a place called Les Petits ponts, 3 kilometers from Vernoux-en-Vivarais. For users, there was only a very narrow passage to circulate and some narrowly avoided this tree, seeing the braking marks. An on-call team from the Vernoux sector roads department cut down this tree using chainsaws early in the morning.
In Ardèche, DR 213 closed after landslides
Furthermore, following rock slides, departmental road 213 is closed after Saint-Pierre-la-Roche and towards Coiron. A diversion is in place via departmental road 263.
180 homes without electricity in Drôme
In Drôme, firefighters are mobilized on 20 interventions linked to strong gusts of wind, mainly from Loriol-sur-Drôme to Pierrelatte. Intervening for falling trees and tiles threatening to fall, they were also engaged in the Eoliennes area, in Donzère, for the roof of a building of a fruit transport company threatening to fly away. A specialized company must intervene on site.
An EDF pole fell in the town of Pierrelatte, in the south of Drôme. The power cut impacts, for an indefinite period, 180 homes in the southern sector of the town, chemin des Grès, on the border with the Vaucluse department. Enedis agents are mobilized on site.
Agents from the municipalities and the two Departments are also involved in these various interventions.
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