IN IMAGES: Four months of rainfall in 12 hours cause flash floods in southern France

Up to 30 centimetres of rainfall fell in just 12 hours on Friday in parts of the Cévennes mountain range located between the two departments in France’s Occitanie region, equating to roughly four months of precipitation in just half a day. 

The meteorological anomaly for this time of year (floods usually take place in this area in autumn) caused local roads to cave in, damaged vehicles and flooded houses and shops.

 

In the town of Anduze, the Gardon river rose between 3 to 5 metres, leading several roads to be cut off by flash floods and leaving nearly 2,000 homes without electricity.

 

A further 2,000 homes were left without a power in towns such as Mialet, Colognac, Saint-Roman-de-Codières, Monoblet and Saint-Laurent-Le-Min, as “strong winds caused tree branches to fall on the cables and electricity posts were also broken”, electricity supplier Enedis tweeted.

In Saint-Jean-du-Gard, an elderly person had to be rescued by firefighters and 40 km further north in Bessèges a firefighter was injured during a mission.

The last time storms and floods as severe as these occurred in the region at this time of year was in 1971.

A total of 16 departments in France were placed on orange alert on Friday for heavy rain and potential flooding.

On Saturday, only the departments of Puy-de-Dôme and Haute-Loire remain on orange alert for bad weather.  

On Thursday, the French island of Corsica also had to deal with torrential rain and severe flooding, especially in it's capital Ajaccio, as seen in the videos below.