JN / Agencies
Today at 13:58–
Hundreds of firefighters were mobilized this Saturday to find nine people missing after torrential rains and floods that destroyed houses and left isolated villages in the Nice region of south-eastern France.
“We currently have a balance of nine people missing and three supposedly missing,” the firefighters told AFP news agency.
In the case of “supposedly missing” people, the authorities have only vague reports, unlike the other cases, in which witnesses or firefighters directly saw people being washed away.
Among the missing are two firefighters and a policeman.
The most affected communes are located in the interior of Nice, in the Roya valleys, in the Tende area and in the Vésubie valley, regions located in mountainous areas of the Alps.
“We have many houses that have been dragged or destroyed, cities like Saint-Martin-Vésubie are isolated from the world,” the firefighters told AFP.
In this village of about 1400 inhabitants, where a bridge was destroyed on Friday, firefighters carried out dozens of security actions during the night and early on Saturday, according to local authorities.
The telephone network works poorly and communications are very difficult. Thousands of homes are without electricity, according to electricity company chief Enedis.
Search helicopters tried to reconnect in the morning, but the cloud-covered sky prevented them from seeing clearly, although the French meteorological service had lifted its orange watch over the department and the rains had stopped.
Many roads in the region are still closed, either because they were destroyed or because of the risk of landslides.
The Nice region was severely affected in autumn 2019 by bad weather, which killed 14 people in two weeks in southeastern France.
In October 2015, storms of rare intensity killed 20 people in huge floods, especially in Mandelieu-la-Napoule and Cannes.
The Cannes municipality postponed a ceremony scheduled today to honor the victims of this tragedy.
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