Thousands of homes were still without electricity on Tuesday June 21 at the end of the afternoon in the South-West, placed on storm orange alert, with restrictions in Gironde and Charente for the Fête de la Musique.
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At 4:00 p.m., 5,000 customers in Gironde and 4,000 in Dordogne were still cut off from the electricity network, according to Enedis, after the violent hailstorms and gusts of wind which affected Monday evening the north of the Gironde, the two Charentes, the Dordogne as well only part of Béarn.
The Weather Channel
* has placed for Tuesday evening, until Wednesday 12 p.m., 22 departments on orange “ storm
rage
” alert, including those affected Monday evening, due to the risk of “
violent thunderstorms and hail
”.
"Don't underestimate the weather"
In Gironde and Charente, the music festival will be prohibited after 10 p.m. outdoors, the prefectures have announced.
The party was completely canceled in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, near Bordeaux, and in Oloron-Saint-Marie, in Béarn.
In Dordogne and Haute-Vienne, the authorities ask "
not to underestimate the weather
" and recommend "
the greatest vigilance
" during the festivities, without prohibiting them.
The climatic episode damaged roofs and vehicles on Monday evening, caused flooding of buildings, falling trees and cables on roads and railways, causing more than 2,000 firefighters to intervene in the region, but without victims to deplore .
In Gironde, the damage to crops and vines is "
localized
" but "
catastrophic
", the chamber of agriculture said on Tuesday, "
corn, vines, field vegetables: no production seems to have been spared
" in the north Gironde, according to a press release.
Showers, floods and hail
The Weather Channel announced an increased risk of hail with locally large diameter (greater than 5 cm).
Very heavy showers, with intensities that can reach 30 to 40 mm/h and risks of runoff and flooding are also to be expected.
On Monday, firefighters intervened 862 times in the north of the Gironde and in the agglomeration of Bordeaux, where hailstones the size of golf balls fell, AFP noted.
The mayor of Taillan-Médoc (10,000 inhabitants), Agnès Versepuy, estimated on France Bleu Gironde that “
80%
” of the houses were “
affected
”.
"
Roofs are broken, ceilings have collapsed, there are uninhabitable houses
," she said.
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Not far away, in Eysines, an Ehpad was partly flooded and 22 residents displaced overnight, while on the Atlantic coast, in Carcans, 126 children and 28 teachers from a UCPA holiday camp had to be brought to safety in a gymnasium.
Two children were slightly injured.
The Weather Channel predicts for Wednesday June 22 a weather of great instability with many stormy passages, but some regions will however be spared by the bad weather (the North, part of Corsica).
The temperatures are lower than the day before, the maximum reaching 30°C (and 32°C in Corsica).
"A grinder couldn't have done better"
According to the prefecture, the damage in the vineyard "
seems significant
".
In particular in the Médoc and Blayais, specified the interprofession of Bordeaux wines.
The regional councilor delegated to viticulture Lydia Géraud evaluated from "
5000 to 10,000
" the number of hectares of vines affected by hail.
In Charente too, the vines in the Cognac region, and agricultural plots, were affected.
"
It's the first time that it's broken like that
," told an AFP correspondent Nicolas Roussillon, a farmer whose crops extend from Bonnes, in the south of the department, to the Dordogne.
Read alsoThe south-west of France hit by violent hailstorms
"
Even a crusher would not have done better
", notes this cereal farmer, after having lost "
100% of his wheat
" in the storm, as well as all of his corn and sorghum, chopped by hailstones.
In the Dordogne, several primary schools have been closed in the La Roche-Chalais, Vanxains and Saint-Aulaye and Ribérac sectors.
Another stormy system affected the Béarn sector of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, causing "
a lot of damage
" to houses and vehicles, according to the prefecture.
*The Weather Channel is a property of the Figaro group.