The grotto of the sanctuary of Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées) reopened to the public on Saturday after flooding, the high place of the Catholic faith visited by millions of pilgrims each year indicated on its website.
“Thanks to the mobilization of the teams of the Notre-Dame de Lourdes Sanctuary, the Grotto was able to be cleaned and reopened to pilgrims, following the floods that occurred today, Saturday,” it is explained.
Pope Francis, at the end of a Mass in Papua New Guinea, spoke of the situation in Lourdes during a prayer on Sunday. “Our thoughts are with the sanctuary of Lourdes, which has been flooded due to recent torrential rains,” he said.
The cave was flooded around 2 a.m., according to David Torchala, the sanctuary’s communications director.
Celebrations have resumed at the usual times, “in all the basilicas and places of worship of the Sanctuary, from the rosary at 6 p.m. at the Grotto,” the sanctuary added on its website.
The Chapels of Lights, also flooded during the previous night, will once again be accessible to the public on Sunday, the same source said.
On the other hand, “water infiltration into the swimming pools requires a complete cleaning and inspection of the installations, resulting in a reopening postponed by a few days”, it is further detailed.
“In the emergency, the flood protection plan has proven its effectiveness,” the sanctuary said, while the Hautes-Pyrénées had been placed on orange flood and rain-flood alert by Météo-France.
“The flood peaks were reached on the department’s waterways in the middle of the day (Saturday) and the level has returned to normal,” the Hautes-Pyrénées prefecture said at the end of the day, reporting two injuries.
Access to the Aragnouet-Bielsan tunnel, linking France to Spain, closed to traffic due to a landslide on the Spanish side earlier in the day, remains inaccessible.
Of the 500 people who were left without electricity overnight, 400 were still affected by the outage early in the evening.
tmt/cco
Related News :