The council evokes the possibility of setting up “measurement buoys off Corsica”, which would perhaps “have made it possible to detect the violence of the storm before it breaks on the coasts”.
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After the tragedy, it’s time for analysis and action. The Corsican executive council alerted, Sunday August 21, on “the essential lessons to be learned” of the violent storm which caused the death of five people in Corsica on Thursday morning. The executive council of the community wonders in particular whether “we could have better anticipated the arrival of this storm of exceptional violence”, with gusts measured at more than 200 km / h.
The board discusses the possibility of setting up “measurement buoys off Corsica”, who might have “allowed to detect the violence of the storm before it breaks on the coasts”. In its text, the executive council of Corsica also wonders if “the reduction in staff within Météo France has reduced the quality of surveillance, especially at night”.
After placing Corsica on yellow vigilance for thunderstorms on Wednesday, Météo France had switched the island to orange vigilance only a few minutes before the gusts hit the coasts, Thursday morning, around 8:30 am. As of Thursday afternoon, the weather forecasting body had denied not having activated this heightened alert level early enough, conceding that it had been “surprised” by a situation “exceptional” but “hardly predictable” by its numerical models.
Passing through Corsica on Thursday and Friday, in the campsites hit by the storm, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had promised that, “like always”, an investigation would be ordered from Civil Security. This investigation should “allow all these questions to be answered and its conclusions must be made public as soon as possible”insisted the executive council of Corsica.
“We will have to rethink our alert and security systems”, had declared for his part Emmanuel Macron Friday evening, in Bormes-les-Mimosas (Var), on the occasion of the ceremony of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of this Var commune by the allied troops.