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Updated 1 hour ago
FRENCH AND ITALIAN rescue services stepped up their search efforts on Sunday after floods cut through several villages in the mountainous border regions, causing widespread damage and the death of three people.
Eight people remained missing on the French side of the border after storms, torrential rains and flash floods hit the area, razing roads and houses, cutting off entire villages and causing landslides.
In Breil-sur-Roya, a French town near the Italian border, houses were buried in the mud and overturned cars were trapped in the river bed.
Rescue efforts were concentrated in the Roya Valley, where approximately 1,000 firefighters, backed by helicopters and the military, resumed their search for survivors and assisted people whose homes were destroyed or inaccessible.
Storm Alex slammed over the west coast of France on Thursday bringing strong winds and rain across the country before moving to northern Italy.
“What we are going through is extraordinary,” said Bernard González, prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes region, after up to two feet of rain fell in 24 hours in the most affected areas.
Italy confirmed that two people were killed on Saturday, a volunteer firefighter in a rescue operation and a man whose car was swept away. France suffered its first death Sunday, a shepherd whose body was pulled from a river near the border.
France has declared the region a natural disaster area.
Saint-Martin-Vesubie, a French town with 1,400 inhabitants north of Nice, was completely cut off by the storm.
A scruffy group of tourists and residents gathered in the town square to be airlifted to safety, an AFPTV journalist said after arriving on foot.
“My three-story house is on the river,” said 62-year-old villager Sandra Dzidt, who had to flee the floods wearing only her nightgown. “All I have left is a small piece of wall and a door.”
Across the region, emergency crews were distributing food and airlifting thousands of bottles of water to remote villages cut off by storms.
Helicopter procession
French Prime Minister Jean Castex inspected the damage by helicopter on Saturday and said he feared the number of missing people could rise after dozens of cars and several houses were razed to the ground in apocalyptic scenes.
González asked the families of the disappeared not to lose hope.
“The fact that their loved ones have not been able to communicate does not mean that the storm took them away,” he said.
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Many fixed line services and some mobile phones were interrupted, and some villages used satellite phones to communicate with rescue services.
Despite forecasts of more rain, rescue efforts would continue throughout Sunday, Gonzalez said.
“The helicopter procession will continue throughout the day,” he said.
The presidents of the Italian regions of Piedmont and Liguria signed a joint letter calling on the government to declare a state of emergency with several isolated villages.
“The situation is very serious. It’s like 1994, ”when 70 died after the flooding of the Po and Tarano rivers, Piedmont President Alberto Cirio told La Stampa newspaper.
“The difference is that 630mm of water fell in 24 hours, unprecedented in such a small period of time since 1954.”
Cirio added that Italy was already struggling to cope with the effects of the coronavirus, which left some 36,000 dead and destroyed the economy in the past six months.
“We are already in an extraordinary situation. Due to the pandemic, the region will receive 200 million euros less in tax revenue this year. If the state does not intervene (with rescue funds) we will not recover. “
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