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France and Italy step up rescue efforts after floods
SAINT-MARTIN-VESUBIE, France, Oct 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – French and Italian
rescue services stepped up their search efforts on Sunday after floods cut
off several villages near the two countries’ border, causing widespread
damage and killing two people in Italy.
Eight people remained unaccounted for on the French side of the border
after storms, torrential rain and flash floods battered the area, washing
away roads and houses, cutting off entire villages and triggering landslips.
Breil-sur-Roya, a French village close to the Italian border, was a scene
of devastation with houses buried in mud and turned-over cars stuck in the
riverbed, an AFP journalist said.
Rescue efforts were concentrated on the Roya valley where around 1,000
firefighters backed by helicopters and the army resumed their search for
survivors, while giving assistance to people whose homes were destroyed or
inaccessible.
Storm Alex barrelled into France’s west coast on Thursday bringing powerful
winds and rain across the country before moving into northern Italy.
“What we are going through is extraordinary,” the prefect of the Alpes-
Maritimes region said Bernard Gonzalez after as much as 60 centimetres (two
feet) of rain fell over 24 hours in the worst-affected areas.
France has declared the region a natural disaster zone.
Saint-Martin-Vesubie, a French village home to 1,400 north of Nice, was cut
off by road.
A bedraggled group of tourists and residents — including a woman who had
lost her house — gathered in the village’s local square to be airlifted to
safety, an AFPTV journalist said after reaching the site on foot.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex inspected the damage by helicopter
Saturday and said his government had triggered its emergency plan for
handling natural disasters.
He feared the number of people missing could rise after dozens of cars, as
well as several houses, were swept away in apocalyptic scenes.
Local authorities gave shelter to some 200 people overnight, while food and
thousands of bottles of water were being airlifted into remote villages cut
off by the storms.
-‘Helicopter procession’ –
Gonzalez called on the families of the missing people not to give up hope.
“Just because their loved ones haven’t been able to get in touch doesn’t
mean that they have been taken by the storm,” he said.
Many landline and some mobile phone services were disrupted, with some
villages using satellite phones to communicate with rescue services.
Despite forecasts of more rain, rescue efforts were to continue throughout
Sunday, Gonzalez said.
“The helicopter procession will continue all day long,” he said.
The two people who died Saturday in Italy were a volunteer firefighter on a
rescue operation in the Aosta Valley and a man whose car was washed away in
the River Sesia further east.
The presidents of Italy’s Piedmont and Liguria regions signed a joint
letter calling on the government to declare a state of emergency with several
villages cut off.
“The situation is very serious. It is like it was in 1994,” when 70 died
after the Po and Tarano rivers flooded, Piedmont’s president, Alberto Cirio,
told La Stampa newspaper.
“The difference being 630 mm of water fell in 24 hours — unprecedented in
such a small timeframe since 1954.”
Cirio added Italy was already struggling to cope with the effects of the
coronavirus which has left some 36,000 dead and shattered the economy over
the past six months.
“We are already in an extraordinary situation. Because of the pandemic the
region will this year receive 200 million euros less in tax receipts. If the
state does not intervene (with rescue funding) we shall not recover.”
BSS/AFP/ARS/1907 hrs