Closed bridges, delayed trains, power cuts… Storm Austen sweeps across the Loire-Atlantique

Storm Austen hits Normandy, after having already spoiled the weekend in the Great West. Friday October 23, some 19,000 households in Pays de la Loire - including nearly 8,300 in Loire-Atlantique - found themselves without electricity due to gusts and bad weather caused by the depression that arrived Thursday evening from the west of the Channel. Placed on orange “strong wind” alert until at least 2 p.m., the department recorded gusts of more than 120 km/h at the Pointe de Chemoulin, in Saint-Nazaire.

The episode caused a myriad of incidents across Loire-Atlantique. Many trees have been laid down. The Loire-Atlantique SDIS firefighters have carried out 28 interventions since Thursday evening, on the coast and in the Nantes metropolitan area. The department's technical services were called upon a hundred times to clear traffic lanes. No casualties have yet been reported in connection with the storm.

As a direct result of the bad weather, traffic was particularly difficult in the Nantes and Nazaire towns on Friday morning due to remaining strong gusts. Ahead of Storm Austen, the prefecture ordered the closure of the Saint-Nazaire and Cheviré bridges. The two structures will not reopen until late morning.

The passage of the storm also caused cascading delays on the rail network. SNCF traffic is interrupted in both directions of traffic on the Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, Nantes-Ancenis and Nantes-Angers-Saint-Laud-Le Mans lines, in particular due to falling trees on the tracks. A very gradual recovery is announced from midday. The SNCF specifies, however, that the network will remain severely disrupted and invites users to postpone their trip. Several airlines, including Transavia and EasyJet, have canceled their flights departing from Nantes-Atlantique airport scheduled for this Friday morning.

Storm Austen is expected to move across the northern half of France during the day. In the morning, gusts of up to 161 km/h were recorded in Plovan, in Finistère. Particularly at risk, the Manche department is expected to experience gusts of up to 130 to 140 km/h on the coast.