Flooding affects three departments: Vosges, Haute-Saône and Saône-et-Loire

Vigilance orange: flooding threatens three départements

Météo-France issued a vigilance orange warning for three départements due to the risk of flooding, this Tuesday, October 8. The Vosges, Haute-Saône and Saône-et-Loire are particularly concerned by this warning.

For Wednesday, the situation has worsened, with 25 départements now under orange vigilance due to the arrival of the Kirk depression, compared with just 19 previously. The six departments added to this list are the Ardennes, Marne and Aube, which are on alert for risks of “rain-flooding”, as well as the Vosges, Haute-Saône and Saône-et-Loire, again for flooding.

On Wednesday, the risk of “rain-flooding” already affected seventeen départements: Eure-et-Loir, Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Loire-Atlantique, Loiret, Maine-et-Loire, Sarthe, Paris, Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, Deux-Sèvres, Vendée, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne and Val-d’Oise. The departments of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées have also been placed on wind alert.

The Saône, upstream of the Lanterne, is under orange alert. According to Vigicrues, heavy rainfall in the upstream Saône basin since Monday has caused the river to react rapidly. Significant overflow and damage could occur as early as early Tuesday evening. Similarly, the Seille has also been placed under vigilance orange due to heavy rainfall last night, which caused a rapid rise in water levels.

As a precautionary measure, the Alpes-Maritimes prefect has decided to close all the department’s nurseries, schools, colleges and lycées for the day on Tuesday.

Météo-France emphasized the “remarkable” intensity of rainfall over the past 24 hours, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Vosges, with particularly high accumulations in the plains of Burgundy-Franche-Comté, reaching up to 60 mm in just one hour under the Cevennes thunderstorms.