Residents in the flooded streets of Cloyes-sur-le-Loir, in Eure-et-Loir, October 11, 2024 (AFP / JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER)
The “general trend” was towards recession on Friday evening after the floods caused by the Kirk depression and only Seine-et-Marne was kept on red alert for floods, Météo-France announced.
Until then also on red alert, Eure-et-Loir has been downgraded to orange, like neighboring Loir-et-Cher, despite peaks expected locally in places.
“The general trend is towards recession and the propagation of floods downstream everywhere”, summarizes Météo-France in its 10 p.m. bulletin.
In Eure-et-Loir, almost half of the municipalities were affected by flooding in the wake of the Kirk depression, and the decline began slowly upstream of the affected areas. In Bonneval, where the Loir had flooded the town center and forced dozens of residents to leave their homes, the level had returned at 8:00 p.m. to only 0.90 m, compared to a peak of 2.13m the previous evening.
In the Cloyes-les-Trois-Rivières sector, downstream, “the situation remains very difficult” even if the peak was about to be reached, according to a point from the Eure-et-Loir prefecture at 8:00 p.m. The city center was invaded by the waters of the Loir and all traffic was impossible, noted an AFP photographer.
According to records from the government organization Vigicrues, the peak was reached in Cloyes around 7:00 p.m., at the historically high level of 1.85 m compared to 1.80 m during the January 1995 flood.
A flooded street in Châteaudun, in Eure-et-Loir, October 11, 2024 (AFP / JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER)
The prefecture was however “waiting for confirmation for the decline which, once started, should gradually fall by 50 cm until 2:00 a.m.”.
Some 800 rescue operations have been carried out since the start of the bad weather, with 304 people evacuated and brought to safety.
– “Psychological difficulties” –
In Seine-et-Marne, the flood was also receding on Friday, after the Grand Morin, a tributary of the Marne, burst its banks the day before, drowning many sectors.
Despite the improvement, the flood continued in certain sectors of Seine-et-Marne, such as in Crécy-la-Chapelle which still had its feet in the water on Friday.
“In Crécy-la-Chapelle, we are in the ebb phase but it is quite slow” and some residents “are in psychological difficulties”, indicated the prefecture during the day.
According to a report from the Ministry of the Interior, the bad weather and floods caused by Kirk have at this stage left one seriously injured and eleven lightly injured.
– Preventive evacuations –
In Loir-et-Cher, on orange alert until Saturday, the level of the Loir continued to rise, Vendôme town hall warned on Friday morning. The city hospital and a nursing home were preemptively evacuated.
Floods in Cloyes-sur-le-Loir, in Eure-et-Loir, October 11, 2024 (AFP / JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER)
“The recent rains upstream of Vendôme are causing a rise in water levels delayed by around 24 hours,” explains the town hall in a press release.
Also in Essonne, a department on green alert but adjoining Eure-et-Loir and Seine-et-Marne, a hospital was evacuated “as a precaution” due to the rising waters of the Yerres, the ‘AFP the prefecture.
57 patients from the Val d’Yerres private hospital are being evacuated to other hospitals and clinics. The most critical patients have already been evacuated, with the support of a motorized escort from the Essonne national police. These transfers should be completed this evening.
In Haute-Saône, a mini-tornado swept through the town of Cubry-lès-Faverney for a few minutes early Thursday evening, damaging the roofs of eight houses and a shed according to firefighters, without causing any injuries.
A fishing tackle store in Châteaudun, in Eure-et-Loir, flooded on October 11, 2024 (AFP / JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER)
Friday at 6:00 p.m., only 5,000 homes remained without electricity after the passage of Kirk, mainly in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques (4,000), indicated the manager of the electricity distribution network Enedis. More than 92% of the 65,000 customers without power Thursday morning were replenished.
At the end of the wettest month of September in 25 years, the average annual precipitation totals have already been exceeded almost everywhere in mainland France.
