The bad weather is fading, the concerns remain.
A man was still missing this Sunday afternoon in Guadeloupe while vigilance for heavy rains and thunderstorms was lifted in the early morning after bad weather that killed two people, the prefecture said in a statement.
Sunday afternoon, "significant means [were] still in progress" to find a young man "missing carried away by the water near the marina of Gosier", Saturday morning, following heavy rainfall.
VIDEO.
Two dead and one missing after floods in Guadeloupe
Rescuers were able to take advantage of more favorable weather to deepen the search.
The night from Saturday to Sunday was much quieter than the previous one.
"The SDIS (Departmental Fire and Rescue Service) did not carry out any intervention in connection with the floods", underlined the prefecture.
This apparent calm does not erase the violence of the rains of the day before.
A man was found dead in his submerged vehicle in Les Abymes on Saturday morning, and the prefecture also reports the discovery of “a man (…) in his road car in Gosier by firefighters outside the flooded area.
The exact circumstances of his death are still under investigation.
Electricity distribution, almost restored
In the night from Friday to Sunday heavy rains fell, damaging some electrical infrastructure.
"The restoration of the electrical distribution is ensured on almost all of the territory" even if "some difficulties remain in the municipality of Gosier", assured the same source, specifying that Pointe-à-Pitre and a large part of the city des Abymes "suffered major water cuts".
Certain axes remained, on Sunday, difficult to pass through, in Le Gosier and Les Abymes (Editor's note: municipalities of Grande-Terre) "given the mud present on the roads".
The prefecture also advised to avoid these areas “likely to experience landslides”.
Some electric poles are also "retained only by vegetation", it is specified.
Sunday morning, while the cleaning teams were still at work, the landscape had changed on the beach of Petit Havre in Gosier.
Resident of the town, Marie Monnery, 39, sales manager, expressed her "astonishment" to AFP.
"With my son we saw an unrecognizable beach, completely transformed, gullied, sandy corals", she said, ensuring that her child does not "put his head under water because of the poor quality water the day after heavy rains.
In the streets of Pointe-à-Pitre, the May Day parade was held normally on Sunday, local media said.
#Floodsinthepointoise area
Report of the bad weather at 2:15 p.m. this Sunday, May 1
The return to normal continues in the pointoise area.
Guadeloupe went into green vigilance at 6 a.m.
pic.twitter.com/Wiy9B5qg2M
— Prefect of Guadeloupe (@Prefet971) May 1, 2022
Guadeloupe was hit by exceptional rainfall overnight from Friday to Saturday.
"The rainfall exceeded 300 mm, a phenomenon greater than that recorded during Cyclone Maria" in 2017, had underlined the prefecture in a previous press release.
Still on yellow alert for "heavy rains and thunderstorms" on Sunday afternoon, the islands of Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy were to return to green "at 5 p.m." local (11 p.m. in mainland France), Météo France Antilles-Guyane told the AFP.