Storm Monica has passed, but the weather forecast is still on alert in five departments for floods. The toll from the bad weather shows five deaths and several people are still being sought.
Storm Monica has passed, but the consequences of the depression are still visible. Five departments remain placed on orange flood alert this Tuesday March 12 due to rising rivers according to Météo France: these are Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Puy-de-Dôme and the Yonne. If the trend is rather towards recession across the entire territory according to the morning report from Vigicrues, these territories remain at risk.
In Yonne and Puy-de-Dôme “the declines are in progress on the upstream sectors of the sections placed on orange vigilance, the peaks having been reached or about to be reached on the more downstream parts”. But “on the Atlantic coast, the tidal coefficients are very high this Tuesday morning. Overflows are expected in the estuaries at the next high tide” specifies the meteorological agency. And in the southwest, vigilance is also required for inland watercourses because of the “rise in levels” of rivers. Orange flood warnings should be maintained until tomorrow according to Météo France forecasts.
At least five people have lost their lives during Storm Monica since last Saturday. But the results remain provisional at this stage, with three people still actively sought. Among them are two children aged 4 and 13 who went missing in Gard. While the father of the family was also missing, a body possibly matching the man’s description was found Monday morning. The family had disappeared in the Dions area, during the night from Saturday to Sunday, while returning home after a dinner, relays Le Parisien. The mother managed to escape after the vehicle was swept away by the river while passing over a submersible bridge, which was apparently not closed to traffic.
The third person sought is a young woman who could have been swept away in the same accident as that which cost the life of an 87-year-old man, whose body was discovered this Monday in Hérault, near the town of Pézenas. The man’s vehicle was also found at the scene. It was flooded, the Hérault prefecture said. On Sunday, the bodies of three victims had already been discovered in Gard. The deceased had been swept away by water while trying to cross submersible bridges.
