Corsica: three dead and injured during a very brutal stormy episode

In Corse-du-Sud, a 13-year-old girl died when a tree fell on her bungalow at a campsite in the village of Sagone in the early morning. One person was also seriously injured and eight others were injured on this site, firefighters told AFP.

Shortly after the deadly storm, tourists left this campsite with their suitcases and bags, many in shock, noted an AFP photographer. An Italian woman says she wants to place a candle to thank God for saving her life: a tree fell barely two meters from her tent.

A 72-year-old woman died on Liamone beach in Coggia, in Corse-du-Sud, after the roof of a straw hut fell on her vehicle, the prefecture said.

In the Gulf of Sagone, Benjamin Roux, 26, told AFP that he was "woken up around 7:30 a.m. by a very big storm", which cut off electricity and the telephone network.

- "Dislocated boat" -

This tourist from Isère, was to dive Thursday morning "and the monitor had not foreseen this storm at all". He went to Liamone beach, where the septuagenarian lost her life, and rescued "people on a boat that ran aground and broke up on the beach".

The five occupants slept on the boat 200 meters from the beach according to him, "they did not see the sea rise". "They managed to get out uninjured. They are devastated."

Wind gusts of up to 224 kilometers per hour have been recorded in this area. Several rescue-at-sea operations were still underway Thursday across the West Coast.

“A large majority of these operations are for strandings, overturned or sinking boats, whose mooring has broken,” a spokesman for the maritime prefecture told AFP, deploring “several injuries on the boats” without there being "vital prognosis involved".

In Haute-Corse, a 46-year-old Frenchman died in a campsite in Calvi. A 23-year-old Italian woman, also on vacation at a campsite in this seaside town, is in absolute emergency, in cardio-respiratory arrest, and was transported to Bastia hospital, according to the prefecture of this department.

- Heavy rain -

Julien Ceschel, 36, lighting designer, on vacation in Borgo (Haute-Corse) with his wife and 18-month-old daughter, was surprised by the speed of the phenomenon.

"I went out this morning, it was barely raining. After a few minutes, there was torrential rain, the wind hitting hard." By car, it was "complicated to hold the road".

The storms left the island for neighboring Italy at the end of the morning, said Météo-France, which lifted the orange vigilance, but "a resumption of stormy activity is expected next night".

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin will travel to Corsica in the afternoon at the request of President Emmanuel Macron, who has shown his full support for the president of the island's executive Gilles Simeoni.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, strong thunderstorms accompanied by sustained rains hit the south-east of France, several departments of which had been placed on orange alert, but the damage remained very limited on the continent despite cumulative rains of up to 123 millimeters in Lauroux, a village about sixty kilometers from Montpellier.

According to the mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan on Twitter, more water has fallen "in 24 hours than since the beginning of the year".

At a time when many French regions are on drought alert and affected by fires, these rains have moistened the soil, a positive effect in particular in the prevention of fires.

"We will see in ten days, according to hydrometric readings, what has been the real effect of these rains on the rivers" and on the situation in terms of drought, explained to AFP the services of the prefecture. of the Var.

On Wednesday afternoon, rain and hailstones also hit the north of Saint-Etienne (Loire), and the south of Lyon suffered flooding. Hailstorms also damaged vines in the Gers on Wednesday and in Hyères in the Var.