Although the snowfall, which is rather unusual in the west of France, has decreased significantly, it has had significant consequences.
Truck drivers stuck on the highway, canceled trains, suspended school buses… If winter storm Caetano “has now left the country” according to Météo-France on Friday, it has caused chaos in transport and the weather organization is warning against a risk of “very clear” and “well in place” refreezing where the snow fell the day before.
Although the snowfall, which is rather unusual in the west of France, has decreased significantly, it has had significant consequences. Restrictions on road transport apply in certain areas on Friday while SNCF traffic remains locally disrupted. Dozens of truckers were still blocked by snow around 6:30 a.m. on the A36 motorway, managed by APRR, near Montbéliard, in Doubs, in the Beaune-Mulhouse direction, according to images from webcams consulted on the Vinci Autoroutes website.
More than a thousand agents from the electricity network manager are hard at work to restore power while 270,000 people have been deprived of electricity, according to the latest report from Enedis at 6:00 p.m. Thursday.
On Friday, 31 departments are still placed on orange alert for snow, ice and wind, compared to around fifty on Thursday, Météo-France confirmed in its bulletin published at 6:00 a.m. The two departments of Corsica should experience an “episode of locally stormy winds (…) until the end of the morning”. Météo-France announced Friday morning that it had recorded gusts of 150 km/h on the coast of Balagne (north-west), 160 to 180 km/h on the north of Cap Corse (north), 120 to 145 km/h by surge in Conca and Porto-Vecchio (south-east), and 90 to 110 km/h in the Bastia region (north-east). The 29 departments affected by snow and ice range from Normandy to Haut-Rhin, via Ile-de-France. There could be a “high risk of a sliding phenomenon due to refreezing over a large part of the northern half of the country”, warned Météo-France.
In Haute-Saône, minimum temperatures could fall between -8 and -9°C in places, with a risk of refreezing and “in the morning, dangerous road phenomena”, warned the prefecture. Dozens of road accidents took place on Thursday. In Manche, an accident on public roads left one seriously injured.
Fallen trees
School transport was interrupted Thursday in several western departments. This will still be the case on Friday in Mayenne and in the five Normandy departments until midday. Collective transport of children will also be prohibited in Sarthe.
The Paris region, the center and the East will also be affected. Seine-et-Marne will suspend public and school transport. School lines and regular bus lines will be suspended until midday in the departments of Loir-et-Cher and Eure-et-Loir. In Loiret, traffic on school lines will be suspended until midday. In Haut-Rhin, school buses will not take place. The prefect of Doubs also issued an order to suspend school transport from 5 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Montbéliard urban community.
Traffic restrictions still affect heavy goods vehicles weighing 7.5 tonnes on Friday, with speeds reduced by 20 km/h and overtaking bans in places. Sections of departmental roads, and even highways, have been closed. This will still be the case in Sarthe on Friday and traffic will be prohibited on the A28 between Alençon and Le Mans in both directions. In Ile-de-France, the RN 118 will be prohibited on Friday for vehicles weighing more than 7.5 tonnes, they will not be able to overtake on the main axes of the region and for all vehicles, the speed is lowered by 20 km/h on the same axes.
The disruptions also affected rail traffic. Added to this was the social movement underway at the SNCF. This will still be the case on Friday, SNCF said, while trees fell on the tracks “in Normandy, Pays de la Loire, Nouvelle Aquitaine and Ile-de-France”. The trains will not run in Normandy until midday “time to pass the reconnaissance trains and carry out clearances and repairs”, indicated the SNCF. In Pays de la Loire, “the region was very affected by falling trees”. “Traffic is gradually resuming on Nantes-Angers” but on the other hand, “the other lines of the Nantes star will not be able to resume until tomorrow during the day”. In Ile-de-France, there are still disruptions on line P between Coulommiers and Paris-Est, and traffic is interrupted on line T13 until 9:30 a.m., according to the X accounts for these lines.
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