The two departments are placed on red alert due to an “exceptional Mediterranean episode”.
What you need to know
Limit travel to reduce risks. All schools in Gard and part of those in Hérault are closed on Wednesday, September 30, due to the risk of heavy rain and flooding, the prefectures announced. Public transport is also interrupted. The two departments are placed on red alert due to an “exceptional Mediterranean episode”, according to Météo-France. Follow our live stream.
Three other departments on orange alert. Lozère and Ardèche remain on orange “rain-flood” and “storms” alert. Bouches-du-Rhône also goes into orange “rain-flood” vigilance from midday.
Significant rainfall accumulations. Météo-France predicts "storms and heavy accumulations of rain first in the Cévennes then extending to the plains, allowing us to speak of a remarkable, even exceptional, Mediterranean episode in the Gard and Hérault". The meteorological institute forecasts on the relief and the Cévennes Piedmont "50 to 80 mm of rain possible in one hour" and accumulations of around "200-250 mm, even locally 350 mm". The bad weather will then shift to the plains at the end of the morning, where “60-100 mm of rain in one hour can be observed”.
Trains at a standstill. This meteorological episode imposes "a total interruption" of rail traffic on Wednesday "on the Nîmes Alès La Bastide Marvejols Clermont-Ferrand axis", SNCF announced overnight on its website, adding that replacement coaches will be put in place.
“This is the first episode that we have after 4 to 5 months of drought and heatwave, so vigilance is very important,” warns the prefect of Hérault, Chantal Mauchet, on ICI Hérault. She also calls on the population to cancel and postpone their trips as the department faces intense rain.
Here is today's weather forecast. The weather will be cloudy, and rainy in places. In terms of temperatures, it will still be very mild with 20°C in Dieppe, 24°C maximum in Nice and up to 28°C in Strasbourg. You can find the forecasts in your city right here.
Here is the message received by the inhabitants of Gard, placed on red alert for the risk of rain and flooding, as reported HERE Gard Lozère on its site.
(TONY SELLIEZ / RADIO FRANCE)
Radio ICI Gard Lozère, which is following the situation like ICI Hérault, explains that several submersible bridges are closed in Gard. “The priority is first and foremost security,” insists on ICI Gard Lozère Fabienne Decottignies, prefect of Gard, who calls on residents to stay safe.
(Fabrice Jurquet / AFP)
The Hérault prefecture has just issued new instructions. “A FR-Alert message will be broadcast to the population at 7 a.m.,” announces the prefecture. School transport is suspended. “The prefect of Hérault asks parents to keep their children at home and invites the population to cancel and postpone their trips,” writes the prefecture. Schools in eight sectors are closed.
Schools will be closed and public transport interrupted in Gard, where the prefecture asks "the population to postpone all their trips, not to go on the main roads and to stay sheltered". A crisis unit was opened. Rail traffic is also interrupted "on the Nîmes-Alès-La Bastide-Marvejols-Clermont-Ferrand axis", SNCF also announces.
In Hérault, the last communication from the prefecture dates from yesterday. She mentioned school transport closed in certain sectors, but not schools closed, "unless there is a closure decision decided locally by educational establishments in conjunction with mayors".
Météo-France explains that the rains falling in the South will cause “significant flooding” in several rivers. The forecaster cites “the roaches of Alès and Anduze, the Cèze upstream and the Hérault upstream”. Gard and Hérault are also affected by orange vigilance for floods and storms.
Beyond Gard and Hérault, Lozère and Ardèche remain placed on orange alert (rain, floods and thunderstorms) by the forecaster, who adds Bouches-du-Rhône at the same level from 12 p.m. for risks of rain and flooding.
Gard and Hérault will be placed on red "rain-flood" alert from 8 a.m., announces Météo-France, which warns of a "very marked or even exceptional Mediterranean episode" in these two departments.
Gard and Hérault are placed on red “rain-flood” alert, Météo-France announces.
