No more departments are on orange alert, Saturday April 9. But the passage of storm Diego, which swept across France on Friday, left its mark. Torrential rains caused flooding and strong winds caused trees to fall. A man was seriously injured in Gironde. Franceinfo brings together the damage identified.
An injured after the fall of a tree in Gironde
Around 4 p.m. on Friday, the wind caused a tree to fall on a mobile home in Saint-Laurent-d’Arce, in Gironde. A 56-year-old man was inside, he was seriously injured, according to France Bleu Gironde, which does not give further details.
In Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), in the Procé district, a tree fell on a car parked in a residence. But the two women on board escaped unscathed, as the roof of the vehicle bent under the weight of the poplar, according to Ocean Press.
Thousands of homes without electricity
At the height of the storm, Friday evening, 70,000 homes were without electricity, mainly in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and New Aquitaine, according to Enedis. The latest report from the manager of the public electricity network and subcontractors dates from Saturday at 1 p.m. and reports 18,500 homes still without electricity. More than 1,000 personnel and technicians and subcontractors of the public electricity network manager are still mobilized to restore power.
Floods in Meurthe-et-Moselle
Storm Diego caused some flooding in Meurthe-et-Moselle overnight from Friday to Saturday, with up to 1.50 m of water in the streets, without causing any injuries, France Bleu Sud Lorraine reported on Saturday morning. In Clémery, the water entered houses in places. According to locals, it is “a torrent” who warped gates and lifted cars.
A resident filmed the flood which transformed the street into a torrent, and its gate into a cascade. pic.twitter.com/RYPAWNUoHW
— France Bleu Sud Lorraine (@bleusudlorraine) April 9, 2022
The municipalities of Faulx, Malleloy and Jeandelaincourt were also affected. Under the snow, the firefighters carried out more than 150 interventions, supported by teams of divers and vehicles, mainly for reconnaissance missions. They secured a dozen residents in a school.
Seven hours late for a TGV
After a tree fell on a catenary, 450 passengers on a Paris-Bordeaux train were stranded on Friday evening in the middle of the track near Joué-lès-Tours (Indre-et-Loire). The electrical system of their TGV was damaged after a tree fell around 4 p.m. They were finally evacuated around 9:30 p.m. and did not leave Saint-Pierre-des-Corps until 11 p.m. They arrived in Bordeaux around 1 a.m., about seven hours after the scheduled time.
The tree that fell on a catenary damaged the TGV’s electrical system. Its pantographs, the arms that connect the train to the electrical system, were damaged, and the SNCF had no other way than to saw them. The intervention lasted several hours, until an emergency train came to pick up the passengers. The SNCF claims to have done its utmost in the not obvious conditions of the storm. The travelers were able to be supplied with water and food and also praised the support of the staff on board on social networks. Among them, the former Minister and Secretary of State for Transport Dominique Bussereau.
Night transhipment and on the way with a very helpful sncf staff pic.twitter.com/oRQIZIuW9W
— Dominique Bussereau (@Dbussereau) April 8, 2022