FLASH FLOODING CALLED WORST IN A CENTURY
PARIS Flash floods that tore through several towns in southwest France following an overnight storm killed at least 12 people, authorities said Monday. Some residents had to be helicoptered from rooftops as the equivalent of several months of rain poured down in a few hours and turned waterways into raging torrents.
At least six of the deaths happened in Trebes, Mayor Eric Menassi said. The river Aude that flows through towns such as Carcassonne and Trebes was among the waterways that overflowed, and the flooding was the Aude region’s worst in more than a century, the French agency that monitors flood risks said.
In the town of Villegailhenc, resident Ines Siguet said floodwaters rose so quickly after the rains swept in from the Mediterranean that residents fled to rooftops. A Villegailhenc resident described for French news channel BFMTV how little time there was to escape.
“It was raining, raining, raining and my wife says to me, ‘We can hear water, switch on the light.’ So I switch on the light and nothing, it’s pitch black. So, what do I do? I get up and my feet are in water. I go to the kitchen, I open the door. Impossible. I am trying hard and then the water rose up to my belly,” the resident, identified only as Jean-Marc, told the broadcaster. “We took what we could and went to the attic. So I had to take the ladder that was behind the house and had water up to my torso. I was terribly afraid.”