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northAfter devastating storms in southern France and northern Italy, hundreds of rescuers continue to search for victims. Inside the Nice Riviera metropolis, where villages have been cut off from the outside world, residents are provided with food and water. French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Saturday that the army will also be used to help.
At least eight people were missing in the French department of the Alpes-Maritimes on the border with Italy, and there was no news of many others, Castex summarized. There is “great concern about the ending balance.”
Two dead in Italy
Two people died in northern Italy after the storms. According to the media, among them was a member of the Valle d’Aosta volunteer fire department who was on a rescue mission. Many people were missing. Many homes were without electricity.
In the Piedmont region of northern Italy, authorities temporarily reported around 20 people missing. Even a group of German hikers did not initially contact a hotelier who was supposed to pick them up in Terme di Valdieri after a multi-day tour, he said. The hikers were discovered by the mountain rescue team in a cabin and taken to safety. In Valle d’Aosta, some places were temporarily cut off from traffic after landslides and bridge damage.
Landslides threaten in several places
In the town of Roquebillière, about 50 kilometers north of Nice, two residents who had fled to the roof of their house due to increased flooding are missing: the house collapsed, according to authorities, and the two old men disappeared in the floods. At the site, a bridge over the Vésubie River was uprooted, as was a camp, and houses destroyed or razed, reported AFP reporters.
A representative from the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture spoke of an “unprecedented situation”, large areas were affected by the floods and several villages were cut off from the outside world. According to the network operator Enedis, thousands of homes in the region were without electricity. There were also massive disruptions to the telephone network. Prime Minister Castex announced a visit to the disaster area.
There was a risk of landslides in several places, so many roads remained closed on Saturday. At the Turini pass, some ten kilometers from Bollène-la Vésubie, several fire trucks had to wait before being able to continue towards the disaster area, an AFP correspondent observed. Several of the fire trucks were loaded with boats.
Heavy rains
The floods were triggered by heavy rains on Friday in the region around Nice. Dangerous storm surges were forecast for the coastal metropolis. The Var river overflowed. Air traffic to Nice was suspended and all train stations in the region were closed.
The situation in the neighboring regions on the Italian side was equally dramatic. In Piedmont, numerous villages where houses and streets were devastated were cut off from the outside world and without water or electricity, as announced by the region’s authorities. “The situation is dramatic,” said the province’s fire department, according to the Italian agency Ansa. 150 firefighters are on duty. Damage was also reported in Liguria. In Ventimiglia, on the French border, Mayor Gaetano Scullino said, in light of the floods, “there has been no such disaster since 1958.”
There were heavy rains and floods on Saturday night in the Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto. In Venice, both locals and tourists marveled at the annual “Acqua Alta” flood. Moving levees stopped flooding this year. In November last year, a record flood of 1.87 meters was measured in the city of the lagoon.
Damage assessment in Roquebilliere, France.
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Image: EPA
The storm “Alex” did not spare Switzerland either. There were also heavy rains, floods and landslides there. Highways and train routes had to be closed. The strongest wind gusts were measured in Ticino in the south at 181 kilometers per hour.
