Nearly 143 km/h recorded at Bec de l’Aigle, in La Ciotat, 126 km/h on the Ile de Porquerolles, 102 km/h at Pointe de la Couronne on the Blue Coast…The violent gusts of mistral forecast for the night from Thursday to Friday did indeed take place. If no record has yet been broken in Var and Bouches-du-Rhône, there have been numerous alerts, as have the numerous calls made to the firefighters. However, the latter do not mention major damage, nor additional intervention, the Provencal people having taken care to respect the calls for caution launched by the public authorities.
Christmas events and markets canceled in Marseille
In Marseille, tree branches fell on the paths of Saint Joseph Hill (9th arrondissement), without causing any injuries or damage and before being quickly cut up and evacuated by the city services. The town hall had already taken care to close its parks and gardens to the public. She also canceled a whole series of Christmas events planned for the day: closure of the Canebière Christmas market, but also that of Place Bargemon, next to the central town hall (2nd arrondissement), with its snow track. sledding and its ice rink, also closed to the public.
Place Castellane, according to the ActuMarseille websitea building even lost a piece of facade, crashing onto the public road. Firefighters established a security perimeter.
Closed port in Toulon
In the Var, the gusts also forced municipalities to take measures : the port of Toulon was closed by the military authorities, due to these violent winds, still visible on the site’s webcampreventing access to a ferry from the Corsica Ferries company, the Mega Victoriaaccording to Var Matin. Winds of more than 138 km/h were recorded off Saint-Raphaël, or almost 112 km/h near Ile du Levant. For their part, the firefighters counted around twenty interventions and 4 falling trees, one of which slightly injured a 21-year-old young woman, near the Business School in La Valette du Var.
They also intervened on a ten brush fires, three incidents on power lines including a high voltage line located in La Londe, where around a hundred homes were deprived of electricity. Some damage was also reported in these Var interventions, such as damage to roofs or a collapsed chimney flue. The firefighters were also called to the site of the Grand Var Est shopping center for a shade sail whose metal structure threatened to be torn off by the gusts.
