Weather alert: conditions are improving in the south this Sunday even if the Var, heavily impacted on Saturday, remains on orange alert

Var was heavily impacted by bad weather on Saturday causing several floods, notably in the famous port of Saint-Tropez, and remains the last department placed on orange alert on Sunday despite a lull. Conditions will improve during the day, indicates Météo-France which now only maintains the Var on orange flood alert and specifies that “the episode of heaviest rain is over”.

“Accumulations of rain expected around the Mediterranean could be locally significant and maintain current floods, or even generate new increases on certain watercourses in vigilance in this sector”indicates for its part the government organization Vigicrues in its 6 a.m. bulletin.

Rising waters

In Var, the most affected department, firefighters have had to intervene around ten times since the end of the day on Saturday to come to the aid of people surprised or even blocked by rising waters, at their homes, in their vehicles or outdoors. . Their interventions focused on the municipalities of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez (Gassin, Grimaud, Cogolin, Sainte-Maxime), the Draguignan sector (Lorgues, Taradeau) and Luc-en-Provence. The prefecture called for “imperatively limit travel” in the sectors concerned.

In Saint-Tropez, the water lapped in the evening the storefronts around the Port, including the Sénéquier café, and several managers, particularly of restaurants, were busy with mops to prevent their establishment from ending up under the water. The municipal police prohibited passage in certain places in the city center.

In the town near Muy, some tried to protect their property, like the trader Patrick Gaillard who “put in place a cofferdam (a temporary dike, Editor's note). It's quite expensive but it's necessary, which prevents us from having water in the store, as best we can”.

Stuck in a mobile home

At the end of the afternoon, the firefighters had already intervened “in a regularly flooded area”in Roquebrune-sur-Argens, to help a father and his 11-year-old daughter trapped by water in a mobile home that they had not left despite the injunctions of municipal officials. They eventually had to be airlifted. The day before, nearly 1,900 people had been taken into preventive shelter.

Shortly after, firefighters came to the aid of two people in the same town who were sheltering on the roof of their car, blocked by water on a flooded road. Several departmental roads had to be closed due to flooded roads or blocked by the presence of obstacles.

And in the Gard?

In the Gard, firefighters had to intervene to help a hunter stranded with his five dogs on an islet in the bed of the Gardon. All were brought back safely to the bank.

More than the heavy rains sometimes expected locally, “it is above all the duration of this episode which requires particular monitoring” throughout the southern part of France, Météo-France warns, especially as the soils are already waterlogged. “On the eastern slopes of Corsica and the eastern plain, on Sunday the rains become stronger and more lasting. A worsening of vigilance is not completely excluded”also indicated the meteorological institute in its 6 a.m. bulletin.

As a precaution, TER train services were interrupted on Sunday on part of the line between the Alpes-Maritimes and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, between Puget-Théniers and Annot. Just like on another regional line, linking Gard to Lozère, a department where a TER derailed Friday evening after a landslide due to heavy rain. The driver was very slightly injured, according to the SNCF, and the 53 passengers were able to continue their journey by coach.

Last week, Gard and Var had already been affected by heavy rains which affected a large part of the center-east of the country, causing exceptional flooding in Ardèche and the Rhône. These episodes are expected to be more frequent and intense under the effect of global warming.