Floods hit the Var on Saturday evening, and in particular the famous port of Saint-Tropez, one of the last three departments on orange weather alert due to a new “Mediterranean episode” affecting the south of France.
Firefighters had to intervene around ten times at the end of the day to help people surprised or even stranded by rising water, at their homes, in their vehicles or outdoors.
Their interventions focused on the municipalities of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez (Gassin, Grimaud, Cogolin, Sainte-Maxime), the Draguignan sector (Lorgues, Taradeau) and Luc-en-Provence. The prefecture called for “imperatively limiting travel” in the sectors concerned.
In Saint-Tropez, the water lapped in the evening the storefronts around the Port, including the Sénéquier café, and several managers, particularly of restaurants, were busy with mops to prevent their establishment from ending up under the water. The municipal police prohibited passage in certain places in the city center.
“Analysis of the meteorological situation shows that it is the Fréjus – Saint-Raphaël sector which will now be reached by the wave of water. Rescue resources are on standby in this area to be deployed in response to any requests for assistance that may be made to us,” the firefighters said.
“The duration of this episode requires special monitoring”
In the town near Le Muy, some tried to protect their property, like the trader Patrick Gaillard who “put in place a cofferdam (a temporary dike). It’s quite expensive but it’s necessary, which saves us from having water in the store, as best we can.”
At the end of the afternoon, the firefighters had already 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 left despite the injunctions of municipal officials. They eventually had to be airlifted. The day before, nearly 1,900 people had been taken into preventive shelter.
Shortly after, firefighters came to the aid of two people in the same town who were sheltering on the roof of their car, blocked by water on a flooded road.
In the departments placed on rain, flood and/or flood alert this Saturday – Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hérault and Gard – firefighters had to intervene in Gard to come to the aid of a stranded hunter with his five dogs on an islet in the bed of the Gardon. All were brought back safely to the bank.
The threat is heading towards the Alpes-Maritimes
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, especially as the soils are already waterlogged .
The Var is more concerned by this episode, even if “uncertainties remain about the capacity of storms to progress inland. The episode should lose intensity during the night from Saturday to Sunday,” however reassured the prefecture of this coastal department. At least one road, the RD72 linking Vidauban to Plan de la Tour, is closed.
These stormy showers should shift towards the Alpes-Maritimes in the evening, Météo France warned. In Nice, Boulevard des Deux-Corniches had to be closed following a landslide, according to the metropolis.
Three departments on orange alert this Sunday
On Sunday, the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var will remain on orange flood and rain-flood alert, while the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence are placed on orange flood alert. This Météo France bulletin is valid, for the moment, until early morning.
As a precaution, TER train services were interrupted for Saturday and Sunday on part of the line between Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, between Puget-Théniers and Annot.
Just like on another regional line, linking Gard to Lozère, a department where a TER derailed Friday evening after a landslide due to heavy rain. The driver was very slightly injured, according to the SNCF, and the 53 passengers were able to continue their journey by coach.
Last week, Gard and Var had already been affected by heavy rains which affected a large part of the center-east of the country, causing exceptional flooding in Ardèche and the Rhône. These episodes are expected to be more frequent and intense under the effect of global warming.
