While Pas-de-Calais, the Somme and the North are on orange alert for snow and ice until midday, two people died during the night from Wednesday to Thursday in the latter department, one person who fell on the public road and hit his head violently and a homeless person who was found lifeless in the town of Valenciennes, the prefecture announced on Thursday January 9. At least twenty-three people were slightly injured, according to the same source.
At 11 a.m., the prefecture recorded twelve road accidents and eight people falling on public roads. She also points out “seven interventions relating to a short circuit on public roads”four floods and a fall of materials on public roads.
In neighboring Pas-de-Calais, difficult traffic conditions left at least three injured in several accidents, including one during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, which left three injured in the town of Marck, the prefecture said. “A few other minor material accidents also took place, mainly on the secondary network”she specifies in a press release. Power outages are currently affecting several sectors: those of Arras, Béthune, Lens and Calais, with a thousand homes affected, according to the same source. At 7 a.m., 1,400 customers were without electricity, most of them in Pas-de-Calais, Enedis said.
In the North and Pas-de-Calais, where the orange alert for snow and ice began on Wednesday, the snow remained on the ground on Thursday midday. Météo-France reports “between 1 and 3 centimeters” of snow, even locally 5 centimeters “on the heights and foothills of the Somme”. In the first two departments, orange vigilance must be temporarily lifted at midday.
But the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, accompanied this time by the Somme, return to orange snow-ice vigilance from 10 p.m. Thursday and until 10 a.m. Friday, due to a “marked refreezing” expected with the arrival of cold weather, warned the meteorological organization in its latest bulletin. The meteorological institute adds that “neighboring departments may also be affected by this risk of significant refreezing”.
School transport and intercity bus transport lines were suspended again on Thursday in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, and disruptions are possible in Aisne, Oise and Somme, the region said. Hauts-de-France.
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Seven departments placed on orange flood alert
This winter episode is “not exceptional for the regions concerned”more “significant enough to make driving conditions difficult”noted the meteorological service. The movement of heavy goods vehicles is prohibited “across the entire secondary road network” of these departments until Thursday at noon, according to an order from their prefectures. The speed of vehicles weighing less than 3.5 tonnes has been lowered by 20 kilometers per hour on the motorways and national roads of Hauts-de-France.
For vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes, overtaking was prohibited, and the maximum authorized speed was capped at 80 kilometers per hour on motorways and national roads throughout the region, according to the same prefectural decree. Removals of regional express trains (TER) and disruptions “are to be expected” Thursday morning in the north of Hauts-de-France, warned the SNCF on the X account @TERHDF.
In addition, seven departments have been placed on orange flood alert, synonymous with the risk of significant river overflows: Oise, Seine-Maritime, Eure, Calvados, Ille-et-Vilaine, Vendée and Deux-Sèvres.
On Friday, a new disturbance will approach the northwest of the country, according to Météo-France. Snowfall is expected “along an axis going from Normandy to Burgundy”et “a worsening level of vigilance” snow-ice “is possible”. The institute also notes significant snowfall in the Alps.
