Photos: French towns submerged by Storm Leslie, 18 departments still on alert
Homes evacuated amid record rainfall and river levels, with towns and villages being entirely cut off
Flooding caused serious damage across the Ardèche department
pixinoo/Shutterstock/Meteovilles/X
One person has died as storm Leslie battered France yesterday, with severe flooding affecting the south.
The man died after a tree was uprooted by the stormy weather and crushed him in the 19th arrondissement in Paris.
He was walking with his two children, aged 3 and 5, who were also taken to hospital but did not sustain life threatening injuries.
In the south, firefighters were called out thousands of times, and over 900 people were evacuated in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region due to rising river levels.
Some villages in Ardèche which received nearly 700mm of rainfall have been completely cut off by flooding. Schools in the department are closed today.
All train services around Nice were suspended yesterday evening.
Red-tier weather alerts – the highest possible – were in place in six departments in the south of France last night, for heavy rain / flash flooding and river flooding, but have been lifted this morning.
However 18 departments – mostly in the south-west – are on a tier-three orange alert, for river flooding and heavy rain / flash flooding.
Those in these areas should be particularly careful when outside, especially if driving, as there is a risk of roads in rural areas still being flooded.
Half of annual rainfall level fell in two days
The brunt of rainfall in central France appeared around midday leading to flooded roads and towns, particularly in the Ardèche.
Between Wednesday morning and Thursday night, at least 10 communes in the department recorded over 300 mm of rainfall.
The highest amount fell in Mayres, a record breaking 689 mm (almost 70 cm).
This is around half the annual level of rain that falls in the department, said Ardèche Préfète Sophie Elizéon to FranceInfo on Thursday (October 17) evening.
Annonay, a principal town in the department, was completely overwhelmed by flooding, with schools, nurseries, and workplaces in the town centre being evacuated.
Flood waters reached up to 1.5 metres in parts of Ardèche, submerging some buildings.
Nearly 700 homes lost power across the region during the flooding.
However, the prefecture said only three people were injured.
Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher and Minister of Security Nicolas Daragon will visit the department today.
Ms Pannier-Runacher said the rainfall had reached levels ‘never before seen in human memory’.
Widespread flooding
Other departments also suffered extreme rainfall, including the Alpes-Maritimes.
Various communes in the west and mountainous north faced over 100 mm of rain last night, with the highest amount falling in Caussols (311 mm).
Images and videos of the storms from across France shared on social media can be seen below.
