“We had a gigantic storm“, testifies Alain, on vacation in Sagone in Corse-du-Sud, on France Bleu RCFM. The vacationer says that the sky has “blackened like a big tornado with strong wind, very hot (…) the branches were breaking, the trees were falling and unfortunately, there was a death.“The bad weather killed five people on the island, including a 13-year-old girl in the Sagone campsite, after a tree fell on her bungalow.
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“I have a branch that fell on me just as I was leaving the trailer“, explains Alain who recognizes that he was lucky. “I was spared thanks to God. It was a total panic, I’ve never seen that here, such a tornado with strong winds, it’s terrible.”
#Weather2A The #Corsica from the South again in #vigilanceOrange tonight and tonight for #thunderstorms and rain-flood pic.twitter.com/UWLLBZwuK1
— Prefect of Corsica, prefect of Corse-du-Sud (@Prefet2A) August 18, 2022
“We were sleeping and they had announced rain; Finally, it didn’t rain all night, we were happy“, says for his part Benoît, a father on vacation in Corsica with his two children, aged 13. The vacationer explains to France Bleu RCFM.that the storm arrived suddenly, towards “8am“: “Suddenly, within a minute, the wind picked up and 5 minutes later, it was really the real big storm“, he testifies.
Benoît was surprised by the violence of the winds which suddenly raged: “A large branch fell on the tent while I was with my two children, aged 5 and 13“, continues the father of the family. He then has the reflex to leave the tent, it is then that a “another tree branch fell. She separated me from my children, I managed to catch up with them, we took the car and we went to the parking lot“, says Benedict.”Fortunately, we got out of it. he acknowledges. I don’t know if I was scared, I didn’t even have time to be scared: I saw two branches fall on the tent, I said ‘it’s over, we’re out,'” he breathes, relieved.
>> Storms in Corsica: what we know about the five people killed in the violent weather
Stéphane, he owns a hotel 30 meters from the beach in Sagone. He was setting up his clients’ breakfasts on the terrace when he, too, saw the sky turn black and the storm rise. “It was impressive because the wind was very violent. Deckchairs and parasols partly fell into the swimming pool, the chairs also waltzed like ordinary playing cards. I even had trouble closing the doors. It was like a big tornadohe describes to franceinfo. We are by the sea, so gales are familiar to us, but there, it was really of a rare intensity. The wind was very very strong.“
The storm also hit the city of Ajaccio, about twenty kilometers from Sagone, where Gérald owns a shipyard. And he confides that he has “never seen such a phenomenon in such a short time, in the space of ten minutes“. On franceinfo, he tells the “trees falling on all sides, the road flooded… We couldn’t see 50 cm away. It was truly a doomsday phenomenon.”
In the midst of a storm, the 47-year-old boss went out in a panic to fold up an eight-meter-high tent himself, under which his team works. A rather dangerous operation but all this could have been avoided according to him, with more anticipation. “Everyone will take their responsibilities, but very often, warning bulletins a week or a few days before and not much is happening. I don’t understand why there weren’t any this morning, when they could have done it as a precaution. We ask ourselves a lot of questions on this level.“, he concludes.
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The prefecture of Corse-du-Sud announces this Thursday the evacuation “without delay” of all the campsites located in the south of the island. “The mayors of the Corse-du-Sud department have the obligation to activate their municipal safeguard plan in order to provide a meeting place“, specifies the decree.
The two departments of Corsica, Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse, have been placed on orange vigilance for thunderstorms and rain-flooding, said Météo France on Thursday. The intense rainy-stormy episode that Corsica is experiencing requires “special monitoring because of its intensity and duration”. However, “the gusts of wind expected under the thunderstorms from Thursday night to Friday will be much less violent than those observed this Thursday morning, but an intense rain-storm event much more durable”, assure the forecasters.