Météo France qualifies this Friday evening as "exceptional" the heavy rains which fell since the beginning of the afternoon on the Nice hinterland.
The floods, caused by the arrival of storm Alex, caused damage still difficult to quantify and the Alpes-Maritimes department was placed on red alert.
Roads were completely cut off and hundreds of residents evacuated, before the rising waters put them in danger.
Two people are missing in the Vésubie valley.
In Saint-Martin-Vésubie, towns of 1400 inhabitants qualified by the deputy LR Eric Ciotti as "epicenter of the phenomenon" - where "235 mm of water fell in a few hours" - a bridge was washed away by the waves.
Esteban, 15, was alone at his home in the village when the waters started to rise.
He filmed from his balcony the astonishing scene of this raging torrent which passed just under his window.
"The first time something so violent has happened"
“At first it started to rain and in no time it was a disaster.
The stream below my house has tripled in size and we no longer had a network or electricity, "relates the young man to the Parisian, relieved that the water has not" risen to the level of my house ".
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A post shared by Esteban (@tfb_lyzen) on Oct 2, 2020 at 7:38 am PDT
He was not evacuated by the authorities, but left his accommodation in the afternoon.
"This is the first time that something so violent has happened," he said.
A few hundred yards away, Elizabeth also witnesses the torrential rains.
VIDEO. Storm Alex: a bridge washed away in the South-East
“Storm Alex has arrived.
The rain is so heavy that thunder and lightning are barely visible.
The current comes and goes.
It's hard to imagine that yesterday we were eating on the terrace under a scorching sun!
»She comments on Instagram.
"It's apocalyptic", also testified to AFP the owner of a brewery in the town, according to which "the water is 7 to 8 m above the usual levels".
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According to Eric Ciotti, the Saint-Martin-Vésubie gas station was washed away, "houses were badly damaged, the stadium and the cemetery were drowned," he told AFP.
A garden ready to be swallowed up
50 km away, in Tende, a portion of the road collapsed, blocking this small village at the gates of Mercantour and near the Italian border, as shown in the photo taken by an Internet user, then shared on Facebook.
A young woman whose garden overlooks a nearby stream of water and ready to overflow told us that she had chosen to leave her house with her daughter, for fear that the water would enter her house.
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Why storm Alex is a "weather bomb"
In Breil-sur-Roya, another village suffering from significant floods, the inhabitants share information on social networks and all feel like staying at home, in the face of the raging waters.
In the early evening, the Alpes-Maritimes firefighters counted at least 141 interventions and the evening has only just begun.
Peak precipitation should be reached within a few hours, before receding around 2 a.m.