Severe flooding, material damage and a tragedy: three elderly people died on Saturday evening, crushed by a tree in their car in Rosnay-l’Hôpital (Aube), during violent storms that struck from the southwest to the northeast of France on Saturday.
These three people were “septuagenarians and octogenarians”as well as a fourth passenger still in critical condition, the Aube prefecture told AFP, confirming information from France 3. The accident “occurred during a very strong gust of wind, between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.”.
According to a source at the gendarmerie, a first tree fell on the road, which forced the car to stop, then a second tree fell, this time on the car.
Aube was placed on Saturday evening, like more than twenty other departments, on orange alert for thunderstorms by Météo-France. This was lifted, for Aube as for the other departments, during the night from Saturday to Sunday.
The department, with the exception of this accident, suffered only material damage, “interventions for blown away roof sections, flooded garages and basements”indicates the prefecture.
The north of the neighboring department of Haute-Marne was affected by rising water levels “very fast, in a quarter of an hour”which caused mudslides and notably trapped the residents of a campsite, the prefect, Régine Pam, told AFP.
Hailstones
An emergency shelter was opened in a gymnasium in Joinville, a few kilometres west of the disaster areas, where the Red Cross was able to accommodate 70 victims, she added. Three hundred firefighters took part in the interventions in the department, including reinforcements from the Ardennes and the Marne. Only two minor injuries were reported.
According to Enedis, 1,300 homes were without electricity in Aube at the end of the morning, and a few in Haute-Marne. At the same time, 2,000 customers remained without power in the former Lorraine region, after a peak of 10,000 customers without power on Saturday.
In the Grand Est region, this vigilance forced the cancellation of several festive events on Saturday. The passage of the Olympic flame in the Meuse was able to take place, but the last relays had to be brought forward to avoid the storms, which locally resulted in the department by nearly 60 mm of precipitation in a few hours and large hailstones, according to the meteorological services.
TER traffic was also interrupted on Saturday evening from 7 p.m. on all lines, except Strasbourg and Basel, Metz, Nancy, Mulhouse and Belfort, according to SNCF.
Gusts
Earlier in the day on Saturday, torrential storms affected the Tarn department, “where 61 mm were recorded in one hour in Dourgne, 56 mm in one hour in Montredon and 66.6 mm in three hours in the same place. In Castres, 87 km/h in gusts were recorded”said Météo-France.
The Lot experienced thunderstorms with rainfall intensities of around 20 to 30 mm/h early Saturday afternoon. A gust of 130 km/h was recorded in Tonnerre, in the Yonne, as well as a gust of 107 km/h in Troyes, according to the meteorological services.
Thunderstorms also hit countries bordering France on Saturday. In Switzerland, four people died, including three in a landslide in the southeast of the country, and one man is still missing, local police said on Sunday.
In Germany, the Germany-Denmark Euro-2024 football match, which was played on Saturday evening in Dortmund, had to be interrupted for 25 minutes due to a violent storm.
In northern Italy, the Aosta Valley has also been affected and Internet users have shared spectacular images of flooding and muddy rivers rushing furiously down the mountain.
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