Ille-et-Vilaine was placed on red alert for flooding, Monday January 27 in the morning, due to the Herminia depression, while eight other departments are on orange alert for flooding (Calvados, Eure, Orne, Maine-et-Vilaine). -Loire, Mayenne) waves-submersion (Finistère, Morbihan) or even avalanches (Hautes-Alpes), announced Météo-France.
Red vigilance in Ile-et-Vilaine concerns “the Median Villain and the Cuttlefish”said the meteorological institute in its latest bulletin, published at 6 a.m.
The Breton department and in particular its capital, Rennes, crossed by two rivers, the Ille and the Vilaine, are experiencing the most significant floods for more than forty years. And the situation is likely to get even worse during the day on Monday.
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“Unfortunately the flood peak has not yet been reached”declared the mayor of Rennes, Nathalie Appéré, in a press release released at the end of the day on Sunday. “The decline will be slow and will probably not start before Wednesday”said the elected official. According to the Vigicrues website, the Seiche and the median Vilaine will continue to rise on Monday and Tuesday, and could reach exceptional levels close to the 2001 flood.
The departments maintained on orange flood alert are Calvados, Eure, Orne, Mayenne and Maine-et-Loire. Finistère goes into orange wave-submersion alert, which should extend to the entire west coast on Tuesday, while the Hautes-Alpes remains on orange avalanche alert. “The avalanche risk index is [de niveau] 4 for this Monday in the Hautes-Alpes massifs, except Dévoluy »also known as Météo-France.
Four Rennes streets evacuated
This worsening of the situation in Ille-et-Vilaine follows the passage on Sunday of depression Herminia, which itself followed storm Éowyn, which was exceptionally violent across the Channel. It brought rain and gales to the north-west of France, in areas where the soil is already saturated with water.
In Rennes, the town hall issued an evacuation order on Saturday evening for four streets near the Saint-Martin canal, where barges are now at the same level as cars. She also opened several gyms to accommodate people without solutions.
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By late Sunday afternoon, around 400 people had been evacuated as a preventative measure, according to firefighters. Rennes town hall invited “people wishing to help clean affected homes to register online on the Citizen Factory website”in a process of “citizen solidarity”. The Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture warned that road traffic would be difficult on Monday due to numerous cut and diverted roads.
On Sunday, Herminia also caused disruptions to train traffic in Brittany and Normandy. Further south, it also disrupted the arrival of two skippers participating in the Vendée Globe, Benjamin Dutreux then Clarisse Crémer. After their arrival in Les Sables-d’Olonne, they had to head towards La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) to take shelter due to gusts of nearly 130 kilometers per hour off the coast of the Vendée city.
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