Roads cut, flooded classes, drivers blocked by water… Bad weather has caused damage in these three departments classified as orange vigilant by Météo-France.
Heavy rain caused material damage on the morning of Monday September 18 in Ardèche and Drôme and evacuations of residents in Isère. These three departments are classified as orange vigilant for storms, rain and floods, emergency services and the prefecture announced to AFP. In Ardèche, landslides led to the cutting in several places of the departmental 86 between Tournon and Sarras, in the Rhône valley, announced the firefighters, who intervened around a hundred times in the morning.
Orange flood alert is activated in #Ardèche due to the Doux flood, here in Tournon pic.twitter.com/RlgsVhTait
— France Bleu Drôme Ardèche (@francebleuDA) September 18, 2023
In the same sector, emergency services also carried out the safety of people trapped by water in their vehicles, and that of students from a primary school in Vion, where the water had risen to 20 cm on the ground floor. downstairs, and who were taken upstairs.
In Drôme, on the other side of the Rhône, 130 interventions were reported by the prefecture, which reported “raw” while specifying that“no casualties were reported”.
⚡ Thunderstorms in Rhône-Alpes also produce violent gusts, here in Saint-Donat-sur-l’Herbasse in Drôme. 💨 (© Vincent Dequin via Météo Drôme Ardèche) pic.twitter.com/1VKOO8FZE1
— Météo Express (@MeteoExpress) September 18, 2023
“Several departmental roads are closed or inaccessible because they are flooded”, notably the RN7 to Tain-l’Hermitage in the south-north direction. The A7 motorway is also closed this Monday afternoon, in the south-north direction between Valence (Drôme) and Chanas (Isère), adds the Drôme prefecture. The regional management of the SNCF, contacted by AFP, specified that these bad weather had not “no impact at this stage” on rail traffic.
In Isère, since the beginning of the morning, the intense rains have also caused road flooding, particularly near Beaurepaire, where more than 200 mm of water fell in “two o’clock”, according to department firefighters. A civil security helicopter was mobilized to hoist a driver stuck in his car by the water, while five other motorists, in the same situation, were transported by firefighters and brought to safety in a community hall, – they told AFP.