It’s a paradox: after the heat wave, the risk of occasional torrential rains emerges. Eight departments are placed on orange vigilance for thunderstorms on Sunday August 14 by Météo France, which warns of a “rainstorm episode”.
Intense rains caused a #flood flash of #Lez at #Montpellier during the passage of the storm with some local overflows on the banks.
Video via @infoclapasfr pic.twitter.com/ig5TD6MteO— Meteo60 (@meteo60) August 14, 2022
The first of a long series? There could be more extreme weather events this year as the Mediterranean heats up due to intense summer heat waves. The water temperature reached 30°C in Antibes in July, i.e. 4 to 6°C higher than normal for the season.
These conditions are conducive to the onset of stormy phenomena in the fall, such as episodes in the Cévennes, storms and heavy rains. “Mediterranean episodes are linked to upwellings of hot, humid and unstable air from the Mediterranean which can generate violent storms that are sometimes stationary, details Météo France on its website. This is a fairly classic weather phenomenon at the end of summer. (…) But the warmer the water, the more violent this type of episode is likely to be. analyzes Caroline Jane Muller, CNRS researcher on secondment to the Austrian Institute of Science and Technology at the Figaro.
With these torrential rains that could arrive in the fall, the risk of flooding is never far away. Firefighters, on the front line in rescue operations, alert the population to the risk of flooding. We asked three questions to the spokesperson for the National Federation of Firefighters, Eric Brocardi.
Are you worried about the arrival of storms and extreme weather phenomena at the start of the school year?
Yes, of course, like every year. This period is feared as a result of long heat waves and drought. From the start of the school year, we risk having fairly significant flooding. We remember in particular the storm Alex in 2020 [qui avait ravagé les vallées de la Roya, de la Tinée et de la Vésubie, où dix personnes avaient été tuées].
Today, we are likely to quickly get in working order despite the fires that continue to occupy us. We, being ready, we know how to do it, but we have to inform the population well. It is during this period when everyone is on vacation and has a little time to prepare their house in the face of a natural risk such as floods.
How to prepare for it?
In severe weather, the deadliest cases occur when people try to salvage their belongings because they didn’t think to secure their homes first. When you are lucky enough to have a multi-storey house, that means in particular putting what is most fragile and most dear to your family on the floor, so as to be able to limit the consequences.
Basements are indeed areas where people take reckless risks because at the last moment, they want to go down to their cellar to see if everything is well protected when often it is already too late. Now is the time to think about preparing your home. We are also there to provide prevention advice to the local population. In 2015, we must remember the deadly floods in Antibes and Cannes, we do not want to experience certain tragedies again.
Are you ready to respond to the floods?
We are always ready to intervene. These are the same trucks that you see today on firefighting that you will see in the floods because they are extremely tall machines, 4x4s that allow both pumping actions and rescue actions when the roads are flooded.
The firefighters will be the same. So what we fear is the lack of time between the end of the forest fires and the start of the floods. We need more rest for the emergency services.
Especially since it’s not just natural crises like the ones we’re experiencing right now, we come to the aid of people on a daily basis. We are at an intervention every 7 seconds in France. Firefighters represent 0.003% of the French population and they absorb 4.7 million interventions, which is enormous. There are no holidays for firefighters.
At the same time, our human resources are being depleted. The subject is to respond to all the daily or exceptional crises and indeed, we are missing arms. The number of interventions and requests increases, the crises are more important and are part of the time. We have to reach the threshold of 250,000 volunteer firefighters against 197,000 today to allow all the demands to be absorbed.