An aerial view of flooded areas following heavy rains in Le Luc, southeastern France.
LE MUY (France), Nov 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Four people died and at least one was still missing on Sunday as high floodwaters swamped cars and turned roads into rivers in south-east France.
On Sunday evening local officials confirmed that the bodies of a couple aged in their 70s, who had been missing in their car, had been found. The couple, originally from Grasse had been missing since Saturday after having been forced to turn around when a road became blocked near the town of Tanneron in the Var département.
One corpse was found in the village of Le Muy, just north of France’s Mediterranean coast, close to where a rescue dinghy had capsized on Saturday evening with three members of the fire brigade and three civilians aboard, the local authorities in the southern Var region said. One of the civilians had been reported missing.
The second body, of a man in his 50s, was found in the village of Cabasse in a car, said the local authorities, without giving further details.
Meanwhile, another man, in his 70s, was still missing in the village of Saint-Antonin-du-Var after going out during the night amid heavy rain. Searches are continuing.
The Alpes-Maritimes and Var regions have since Friday been hit by torrential rainstorms that also caused huge waves in seaside areas.
A woman aged 39 was also badly injured on Saturday and hospitalised after being swept away by a wave, the fire service said.
The town of Roquebrune-sur-Argens in the Var region was particularly badly affected and only accessible by boat or helicopter, the local authorities said. Some 4,500 households have been left without electricity throughout the Var and Alpes-Maritimes regions.
Transport was badly hit, with services suspended between Nice and the port of Toulon outside Marseille, with Paris-Nice trains stopping in Marseille and not carrying on to Nice. Normal service was to gradually resume Sunday afternoon.
The senior official for the Var region, Jean-Luc Videlaine, said that the rains had been of “historic” intensity, adding that the damage will be “considerable”.
He said that water levels were now going down but added that the situation was “far from returning to normal”.
In some areas of the Var region, the equivalent of two or three months of rain fell in just 24 or 48 hours.
Neighbouring Italy was also affected, with Venice again hit by the floods that have paralysed the city over the last days, even if the levels were well off the historic peak reached on November 12.
The waters that flooded the iconic St Mark’s Square in the city centre were at knee-height, and were beginning to recede by the afternoon. Worst hit was the region of Alessandria south of Turin where 200 people were evacuated and 600 left isolated. One woman was reported missing, Italian media said. — NNN-AGENCIES
