Romain Coquard, the mayor of Saint-Just-la-Pendue (Loire) had never seen this before. A sudden, violent storm, localized with large hailstones fell this Wednesday, September 7, 2022 at the end of the afternoon in his town. There are no injuries but the damage is impressive, says the city councilor.
“Hailstones more than 5 centimeters in diameter”
Around 5 p.m., in the space of a few minutes, the sky completely darkened and a deluge fell on the town of 1,650 inhabitants south of Roanne. It was the hail that arrived first, “with _huge hailstones more than 5 centimeters in diameter_hailstones between a tennis ball and a ping-pong ball” says the mayor. A big storm of hail and rain followed which continued into the evening.
The flood only affected part of the village, “It’s very localized, but there’s like a corridor effect so there are places that aren’t affected at all and then, on the other hand, there’s a lot of damage in certain places in the village” says the mayor. On Facebook, a resident posted a video of the storm and hail, on the road you can see a white carpet forming.
Two companies, and a local town hall affected
The damage mainly concerns roofs. Many homes are affected but not only. “We have the technical service room which was damaged and totally flooded. We also two companies, one of metalwork and one of equipped kitchens which were affected” details Romain Coquard.
The damage also concerns vegetation, trees “have suffered a lot“says the mayor, referring to “_lots of branches and vegetation on the road”_. This Wednesday evening Romain Coquard did not yet know if the storm had also affected nearby agricultural businesses, “I hope there won’t be too much damage to the crop fields” he points out.
In total, eleven fire stations were mobilized. Firefighters led 40 operations according to the mayor, most of them for sheeting roofs and securing homes. “Fortunately, there are no injuries to deplore” adds Romain Coquard.