A background analysis.
The executive council of Corsica warned Sunday in a press release on "the essential lessons to be learned" from the violent storm which caused the death of five people in Corsica on Thursday morning.
Wondering in particular whether "we could have better anticipated the arrival of this storm of exceptional violence", with gusts measured at more than 200 km / h, the council evokes in particular the possibility of "measuring buoys off the Corsica", which would perhaps "have made it possible to detect the violence of the storm before it breaks on the coasts".
Météo France overwhelmed by the situation?
After placing Corsica on yellow vigilance for thunderstorms on Wednesday, Météo France had switched the island to orange vigilance only a few minutes before the gusts hit the coasts Thursday morning around 8:30 a.m.
As of Thursday afternoon, the weather forecasting body had denied not having activated this heightened alert level soon enough, conceding that it had been "surprised" by an "exceptional" but "difficult to predict" situation by its models. digital.
In its text, the executive council of Corsica also wonders if “the reductions in the workforce within Météo France have reduced the quality of surveillance, especially at night”.
Questioning the government
Passing through Corsica on Thursday and Friday, in the campsites hit by the storm, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had promised that, "as always", an investigation would be ordered from Civil Security.
This investigation should "allow all these questions to be answered and its conclusions must be made public as soon as possible", insisted the executive council of Corsica.
“We will have to rethink our alert and security systems”, declared Emmanuel Macron on Friday evening, in Bormes-les-Mimosas (Var), on the occasion of the ceremony of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of this commune. Var by Allied troops.