This archive report was first published on 15 December 2019.
Published on December 15, 2019, severe storms have left a trail of destruction in France, claiming two lives and leaving thousands without power.
On Friday, a 70-year-old man died in the Pyrenees-Atlantique region when his vehicle struck a fallen tree. In a separate incident, a 76-year-old man was swept away by rising waters while trying to fetch his mail in Espiens, Lot-et-Garonne region.
Rescuers found the 76-year-old man's body 24 hours later, more than a kilometre from his home. Five other people were injured, with two suffering serious injuries, when trees fell on their vehicles.
As many as 40,000 homes were without power on Saturday afternoon, with some 15,000 still affected by the evening, according to Enedis, the electricity utility operator. The company deployed 2,000 technicians to restore power to affected customers, urging people to call a dedicated hotline if they saw power lines had come down.
Overnight, some 400,000 homes had suffered power outages as floods inundated parts of the region, with waters rising to nearly nine feet (2.7 metres) and 30 centimetres per hour in some areas.
Flooding and landslides cut off access to the skiing stations of Gourette and Artouste, while the distribution of drinkable water in the commune of Laruns was interrupted. In the nearby Landes department, about 600 people were evacuated as a preventive measure in areas where the Gaves de Pau and Oloron rivers converge.
"We are getting used to this now," said Christian, a weary pensioner. "We put everything on the upper levels, and we clear out everything from the garage," he added.
However, local rescue force commander Olivier Loustau reported that water levels were slowly falling in the area, and clean-up operations would probably start on Sunday.
