Calm after the storm… The decline continues this Saturday in most of the areas affected by flooding in the wake of storm Kirk, with only two departments still placed on orange flood alert, Eure-et-Loir and Loir-et-Cher, Météo-France announced. “General trend towards recession and propagation of floods downstream in all sectors”, writes Météo-France, which only reports a “significant flood on the Loir Vendômois (Loir-et-Cher) and the ‘Eure upstream (Eure-et-Loir)’.
Seine-et-Marne, which was still on red alert on Friday evening after flooding caused by the Grand Morin, a tributary of the Marne, was downgraded to orange at the start of the morning, then to simple yellow alert in the bulletin published at 10 a.m.
“The rain forecast for Saturday is light in the north of the country and should not counteract the decreasing trend upstream of the rivers. In these conditions, the current floods continue their slow propagation downstream,” summarized the government organization Vigicrues.
926 rescue operations in Eure-et-Loir
In Eure-et-Loir, almost half of the municipalities were affected by flooding, the consequence of the intense precipitation dumped by the Kirk depression this week. According to an update from the department’s prefecture on Saturday morning, 926 rescue operations have been carried out there since the start of the bad weather and 304 people “evacuated and brought to safety”.
The two municipalities most affected remain Bonneval and Cloyes-les-Trois-Rivières, two localities located on the Loir which has left its bed to invade the streets and homes.
The level of the Loir had dropped significantly at Bonneval on Saturday morning, according to Vigicrues readings, while at Cloyes, further downstream, it stood around 10 a.m. at 1.35m, compared to 1.85m at the peak measured Friday evening.
In neighboring Loir-et-Cher, the decline has not yet begun in Vendôme, where the hospital and a nursing home were preventively evacuated on Friday. According to Vigicrues forecasts, the peak should be reached early Saturday afternoon, although at a level lower than the January 1995 flood.
At the end of the wettest month of September in twenty-five years, the average annual precipitation totals have already been exceeded almost everywhere in mainland France.
