“There was a storm, a tornado that ravaged almost the entire village“, lamented, Sunday, October 23 on franceinfo, Benoît-Vincent Caille, mayor of the town of Bihucourt near Bapaume in Pas-de-Calais, affected by violent storms.
>> Tornado, strong winds, hail: significant damage observed in Hauts-de-France and Normandy after violent storms
“We have almost 100 homes out of 150 that have been strongly affected“, says the mayor who adds: “Some houses are razed, collapsed, there are torn roofs. The church is partly destroyed.” On the other hand, the chosen one is delighted that there are no injuries: “No injuries, but heavy material damage“, he summarizes.
New images of the major damage in Bihucourt (Pas-de-Calais)! A high-intensity TORNADO hit the town hard at the end of the afternoon. #France #thunderstorms #Tornado
Credit: Anthony Choquet pic.twitter.com/OrL9uvegqF
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) October 23, 2022
Many residents have been relocated: “We have relocated around 150 people with close friends and family.“Currently, the electricity has been cut off throughout the town”for security purposes“.
From Monday morning,it will be necessary to begin the clearing of all the streets“.”All axes of the municipality are cut. I have never seen that. We see it on TV, but there, it’s amazing and it happened in a few seconds“, he explains. The mayor was at home at the time of the bad weather: “The phone rang. People were in tears on the phone describing the situation.“
Regarding thunderstorms,they were announced [par Météo France] but we expected thunderstorms as we can usually have“, reports Benoît-Vincent Caille, still surprised. The mayor however wants to be reassuring towards his population: “We’re gonna put it all in work to help residents from Monday morning and do our best to rebuild for those who have lost everything“, he concludes.