8 missing in France, Italy flooding
Rains in border region have left at least four dead and swept away homes and roads.
French authorities deployed about 1,000 f irefighters, four military helicopters and troops to search for at least eight people who were missing after devastating f loods hit a mountainous border region with Italy, where at least four people were killed.
Emergency workers in Italy recovered two corpses Sunday in northern Liguria that they feared may have been washed away as a result of the storms that killed two other people Saturday.
Floods washed away houses and destroyed roads and bridges surrounding the city of Nice on the French Riviera after almost a year’s average rainfall fell in less than 12 hours.
Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said more than 100 homes were destroyed or severely damaged.
Rescuers on Sunday were also providing emergency assistance, including food and water, to residents of isolated villages.
The missing include two French f irefighters whose
vehicle was carried away by a torrent when a road collapsed south of the village of St.- Martin- Vesubie.
Authorities fear there are more victims, as many people couldn’t be reached because cellphone service was down.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex, who f lew over the area in a helicopter, expressed “grave concern” over the toll of the f looding.
About 10,500 homes were
left without electricity Sunday, French energy company Enedis said.
In Italy, the body of one person reported missing Saturday — a French citizen of Italian origin — was found in the Roia River, the news agency ANSA and the publication La Presse reported.
The second one washed up closer to where the Roia empties into the Mediterranean along Italy’s border with France.
An Italian firefighter was killed Saturday during a rescue operation in the mountainous northern region of Val d’Aosta.
A search team also found a body in the Piedmont region’s Vercelli province, where a man had been swept away by f loodwaters.
Italian f irefighters also rescued 25 people trapped on the French side of a high mountain pass due to the f looding.