"France has issued red alerts for flooding in three departements as the aftermath of Storm Nils causes chaos across the country. Flood waters have inundated homes and isolated villages after the Garonne River burst its banks, with hydrologists warning that rain is falling on soils that have hit record-breaking levels of saturation. Meteo France said red flood alerts would remain in place on Wednesday in Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne and Maine-et-Loire but the number of counties under orange alert would fall from 14 to 12."
"Monique Barbut, minister for the ecological transition, said a state of emergency necessary to fast-track insurance claims would be declared once the floods had ended. People who follow climate issues have been warning us for a long time that events like this will happen more often, she said on Tuesday, the day after visiting the flood-stricken Gironde region, in comments to TV news channel LCI. In fact, tomorrow has arrived."
"Lucie Chadourne-Facon, director of Vigicrues, France's flood monitoring service, said the succession of rainy disturbances had been exceptional and that soils were so full of water that as little as 20-30mm of rainfall could trigger floods. We are dealing with two parallel phenomena, she told broadcaster BFMTV at the weekend. The fact that it is territorially widespread means all the little rivers that have reacted are flowing into big rivers and everything swells by propagation, she said."
Storm Nils has produced widespread flooding across multiple French departments, with the Garonne River bursting its banks and inundating homes and villages. Red flood alerts cover Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne and Maine-et-Loire while the count of orange alerts decreased slightly. Soils have reached record saturation, making even 20–30 mm of rain capable of triggering further floods. Multiple small rivers are feeding larger rivers, causing propagation and renewed rises as rain continues. Damaging flooding is reported downstream from Agen and in Marmande and Gironde, with officials warning of major flooding on the Maine and Loire and continued rising water levels.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]