170,000 customers deprived of electricity due to snow and wind

The Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher warned that the number of customers affected by power cuts continued to increase.

The Caetano storm causes its first damage. While 56 departments were placed on orange alert for snow, ice and wind this Thursday, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, announced that 170,000 customers of Enedis “no longer had access to electricity” at 2 p.m.

“Enedis teams are on the ground. More than 1,400 agents to come and troubleshoot and repair these power outages. But the number of customers who may be affected continues to increase,” warned the minister.

Transportation affected

She also mentioned “difficulties” with regard to road, rail and also air transport, indicating that “a certain number of lines are either cut or traffic is slowed down”.

The SNCF notably interrupted certain lines in the west in anticipation of violent winds. Others remain in service but the speed of the trains is slowed. “Delays and cancellations” of flights are also expected at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, north of Paris, due to “degraded weather conditions”, warned the General Directorate of Civil Aviation ( DGAC) from BFM Business.

This winter episode is expected to continue overnight from Thursday to Friday with snow likely to turn into ice, which should cause further traffic difficulties on Friday morning.

On the rail side, “the SNCF is taking all measures to ensure either that it does not run trains that are in difficulty, or that they run safely”, underlined Agnès Pannier-Runarcher, who said she was monitoring “the situation hour by day”. hour”.