The south of France is affected by a new “Mediterranean episode”. Météo-France placed three departments on orange rain-flood and/or flood alert this Saturday evening: Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (floods), Var (rain-flood, floods) and Alpes-Maritimes (rain- flood, floods).
In the Var, firefighters intervened “in a regularly flooded area” in Roquebrune-sur-Argens to come to the aid of a father and his 11-year-old daughter trapped by water in a mobile home, which they had not not left despite the injunctions of municipal officials. They eventually had to be airlifted. Firefighters reported no other significant interventions in departments placed on orange alert.
But in Lozère, on yellow alert, a train derailed on Friday shortly after 7 p.m. in the east of the department, near Villefort, due to a landslide due to bad weather, causing a “very slight” injury, the driver, indicated the SNCF. The 53 passengers were able to continue their journey by coach, but the line will remain closed until October 31. The orange alert will end at midnight on Sunday, except in Var and the Alpes-Maritimes where it will end at 6 a.m. on Sunday.
In the Var, 1,900 people sheltered
In Hérault, which turned “orange” this Saturday morning, “a rain-storm line is present in the department, stretching from Montpellier to Millau. The accumulations rose to 30-50 millimeters along this line,” Météo France indicated in its 4 p.m. bulletin. “A second wave of rain of around 30 to 50 millimeters should hit the department again at the end of the afternoon,” the prefecture announced. More than the heavy rains sometimes expected locally, “it is above all the duration of this episode which requires particular monitoring” throughout the southern part of France, warns Météo-France.
Var has so far been the most affected department, particularly in the Vidauban sector, forcing the authorities to shelter “nearly 1,900 people” on Friday as a precaution. “For the moment, the rains are not more intense than this morning,” Var firefighters indicated late Saturday afternoon. “The watercourses are not a problem”, but if the rain episode intensified, “the situation could change quickly”. “Uncertainties remain about the capacity of storms to progress inland. The episode should lose intensity during the night from Saturday to Sunday,” according to the Var prefecture.
Moving towards the South-East
Stormy showers should shift towards the Alpes-Maritimes in the evening, Météo-France warned. As a precaution, TER train services were interrupted for the day on Saturday on part of the line between the Alpes-Maritimes and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, between Puget-Théniers and Annot, indicated the regional company of transport. It is the same on another regional line linking Gard to Lozère.
Concerning Hérault, even before the department was placed on orange alert, the prefecture announced on Friday the cancellation of the Criterium des Cévennes car rally, scheduled for Saturday in the departments of Hérault and Gard and in which 200 runners were to participate. A thousand spectators were expected.
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