Hundreds of homes damaged in French storms
Pastor Dale Morgan
Hundreds of homes damaged in French storms*
AGEN, France, June 11 (AFP) Jun 11, 2008
Violent storms damaged hundreds of homes in southwestern and eastern
France Tuesday night, as streams broke their banks and torrential rains
triggered mudslides, emergency services said.
Firefighters were called out hundreds of times and several dozen people
evacuated to safety, although no one was reported injured in the storms.
In the southwestern town of Roquefort alone, around 100 homes were
flooded, with similar damage in half a dozen towns along the bank of the
Agenais river.
Mudslides also hit two villages in the nearby Toulouse region, Houga and
Lombez, where a building materials store was devastated by the flooding.
Water levels rose to more than a metre (three feet) in many towns,
including the southwestern villages of Saint Martin de Vers and Saint
Sauveur la vallee.
The water had receded by Wednesday morning in the southwest, though
weather officials put the region on alert for further storms.
In the eastern Dijon region, firefighters were also called out more than
350 times as the downpour flooded homes and shops.
Fifteen people had to be evacuated from a building in the Dijon suburbs
that caught fire after being struck by lightning.
And in the eastern Lyon region, firefighters intervened 130 times as
homes and basements were flooded by the rain, which also caused some
damage to local roads.