Toll rises in ‘apocalyptic’ floods
PARTS of the French Riviera have been declared a disaster zone, with 21 people feared dead in flash floods in Cannes and other towns on the Cote d’Azur.
Visiting the region, French President Francois Hollande offered federal help to the worst-hit area, running for about 32 kilometres along the Mediterranean coast from Mandelieu-laNapoule to Nice.
At least seven people were drowned as they tried to save their cars from parking places below their homes at Mandelieu-la-Napoule, David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes, told Hollande.
A family of three drowned when their car became stuck in rising waters inside a narrow tunnel near Vallauris Golfe-Juan.
The mayor of Mandelieu-laNapoule, Henri Leroy, feared that more bodies would be found in underground car parks.
‘‘The water is so opaque that emergency workers cannot see bodies. It’s apocalyptic,’’ he said.
‘‘The parking was half-emptied but there are thousands of vehicles. There could be more bodies.’’
With 16 confirmed dead and five reported missing, the toll was approaching that of the flash floods that killed 25 in neighbouring Var in 2010.
In the medieval village of Biot, where the river Brague burst its banks, four dozen pensioners were settling in for the evening at the Clos Saint-Gregoire retirement home when a wave of water and mud smashed into the building. Three were drowned but staff rescued others.
‘‘We did what we could but the three died before the rescue services could get here,’’ said Jean-Christophe Romersi, the manager of the retirement home company.
The same torrent of mud had flooded the village’s fire brigade and ambulance station.
More than 175mm of rain fell in just two hours on Sunday, quickly sending rivers of mud through villages and the the towns. Thousands of homes lost power and 500 people were sheltered in municipal halls.
Rail services were halted and traffic was blocked on the Marseilles to Nice motorway and other roads in the region.
Hollande, who is to host a global climate change conference in December, blamed the scale and frequency of the floods on human damage to the environment. ‘‘There have always been disasters,’’ he said ‘‘but their rhythm and their intensity have been reinforced.’’
Cannes’ dense network of CCTV cameras captured battered cars piled against walls where receding waters had deposited them. With uprooted trees and debris strewn across roads in the normally spotless resort town, the scene resembled a war zone.
Lisnard said video cameras had recorded some cars – apparently empty – being carried out to sea.
In Antibes, campsites were washed away and people living in mobile homes lost everything. ‘‘The water rose in 10 minutes flat,’’ said Francoise Pauget, the manager of one site. ‘‘We haven’t seen anything 1956.’’
Sarah Kovandzich, a British journalist, was in a bar near the seafront in Cannes when she saw water running past. ‘‘I’ve never seen anything like it in Cannes,’’ she said. ‘‘The water started to seep into the bar, then we were up to our ankles.’’
like
this
since