In Nîmes (Gard)
The phones crackled before dawn. Even in silent mode, an alert ringing accompanied by a message issued by the prefecture rang out on the cell phones of all the residents of Gard and Hérault around 7 a.m. “RAIN FLOOD ALERT Message from the Gard prefecture. Red rain flood warning from 8 a.m. to midnight. Very heavy rain intensities expected up to 100 millimeters per hour. Total rainfall 150 to 300 millimeters. Follow the instructions of the authorities: I stay at home. I don't use my car. I take refuge upstairs. I keep myself informed with the authorities. I move away from waterways and low points. »
In the Cevennes massif, cumulative rainfall could reach 200/250 mm on Wednesday or even locally 300 mm during the day. However, this danger is not uniformly palpable. In Nîmes, for example, it only rains a few drops around 11 a.m. while in the Cévennes, the Corbès submersible bridge, near Anduze, is under water, as evidenced by the Inforoute 30 video surveillance camera put online by the Gard departmental council. At least eight other structures of the same type are closed in this department, as are five departmental roads in the Ganges, Durfort and Sauve sectors.
“The worst of the storm is expected at 5 p.m.”
In anticipation, some stores have decided not to open their doors. Montpellier University Hospital informs that “despite the weather conditions, the hospital remains open and ensures continuity of care and care for its patients”, while recommending that they “not put (themselves) in danger. ". The Nîmes University Hospital has decided to cancel any appointments, consultations, and day hospitalizations that may be possible.
In Hérault, like Gard, schools were closed, like most public services. Public transport, particularly the tramway in the Montpellier metropolitan area, is also interrupted. An interruption which applies to trains which have no longer been running since 11:30 a.m. “between Marseille – Avignon – Sète and Nîmes – Le Grau-du-Roi in order to guarantee the safety of travelers and staff”, explains the SNCF.
“We are in permanent contact with the firefighters and the police. We are ready to open, if necessary, a fallback base for the population in our sports hall, as we have always done as part of our municipal protection plan,” explains to Figaro Jean-Pierre de Faria, mayor of Saint-Ambroix, a northern Gard commune near Ardèche. “We have regular meetings with the firefighters. For now, the weather forecast tells us that the worst of the storm is expected around 5 p.m.,” continues the elected official. Also president of Gard Entreprises, an association bringing together some 400 companies, he affirms that “most business leaders have put their employees into teleworking or asked them not to come to work. »
Manufacturer of safety shoes, Jallatte has closed the doors of its factory in Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort (Gard). “People who had come to work at the factory were asked to return home quickly. The administrative staff and I are teleworking,” explains general manager Jean-Marie Calame. “In this kind of situation, it’s safety first,” continues the man whose industrial site (75 employees), affected in 2014 by a flood, was protected this morning by the installation of cofferdams. On a personal level, Jean-Marie Calame, who lives in a town located north of Montpellier (Hérault), sees water falling in large quantities on his home around noon. “I am equipped with pumps that turn on automatically to release water from the crawl space. The land is dry and the clouds seem to be stagnating, we would like some wind so that they move and empty into the sea,” he says. More than rain, it is the damage that runoff could cause that is feared by the population.
