A flood never seen for more than forty years in Rennes, gusts of more than 100 km/h, the Vendée Globe village closed, rail and road traffic disrupted: the Herminia depression played spoilsport on Sunday in the west of the country.
In the Breton capital, crossed by two rivers, the Ille and the Vilaine, “we are today [dimanche] at values which are higher than those observed in 1981, which was a reference year for a significant flood”, commented the mayor, Nathalie Appéré, during a press briefing on Sunday morning. The rising waters of the Ille-et-Rance canal led the town hall to issue an evacuation order for four streets on Saturday evening. Residents are asked to find shelter with relatives or in one of the three gymnasiums opened by the city. A crisis unit has been opened at the town hall, which is preparing to receive “the equivalent of 15 days of precipitation”.
“We issued an evacuation order yesterday [samedi] evening on four streets […]homes which are behind a dike which normally protects them, and there the water has passed above the dike”specified Ms. Appéré. The area has around a hundred homes, according to the mayor. “Most people went to relatives […] and we had 26 people welcomed last night” in one of the two gyms, she added. This district wedged between the Ille-et-Rance canal and the Ille had its feet in the water on Sunday.
“I’ve lived in the neighborhood for forty years, I’ve never seen that.” Bruno Lorandel, 47, explained to AFP. In his professional premises, this audiovisual producer has “damage since yesterday”, with some of the material lost. “We are in the process of scooping out water from the cellars. […] Last week, it was limited at the canal and road level. I told myself it was going to be the same thing, and in the end no information and that was it.”
The Vendée Globe village closed to the public
Herminia follows storm Éowyn, which was exceptionally violent across the Channel and particularly in Ireland. It brought rain and gales to the north-west of France, in areas where the soil is already saturated with water.
Météo-France has placed the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the Hautes-Pyrénées and the Rhône on orange wind alert until Monday. Finistère and Côtes-d’Armor were downgraded to yellow vigilance in the middle of the day. Morbihan will turn orange for rain-flood from 6 p.m. Sunday. Calvados, Ille-et-Vilaine, Mayenne and Orne will remain on orange flood alert until Monday. Water will continue to rise throughout the region, Vigicrues warned.
-“After a slight lull in precipitation, the new rains this Sunday will generate new reactions on many rivers. On rivers already in flood, further increases are expected. said the flood information service in its latest bulletin.
Further south, in Les Sables d’Olonne, the Vendée Globe village, established since the start of the round-the-world sailing race on November 10, was closed to the public. According to a source close to the race management, the poor conditions could force the skippers Benjamin Dutreux and Clarisse Crémer, expected on Sunday, to take shelter in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) or Lorient (Morbihan) once the line has passed offshore. from the Vendée city because entering the port could be too dangerous.
The Herminia depression also led to train cancellations in Normandy, where gusts of up to 110 km/h are expected, SNCF announced. Traffic, particularly between Paris and Cherbourg and between Caen and Rennes, should be disrupted on Sunday and Monday, the railway company warned. The same in Brittany, with the suspension of traffic on the lines between Quimper and Landerneau since 8:30 a.m. and between Rennes and Saint-Malo from 9 p.m.
Snow showers fell overnight in Mayenne, disrupting road traffic.
