A street in Anduze in the Gard, after the floods on September 19, 2020. -

AFP

Nature did not give gifts this weekend in the Cévennes.

Torrential rains fell on the massif on Saturday and a motorist was still missing on Sunday.

The red vigilance was however lifted by Météo-France for the Gard department.

The organization now maintains three departments around the Mediterranean - Hérault, Var and Alpes-Maritimes, in vigilance orange storms.

🔶 3 deposits in #vigilanceOrange



Stay informed on https://t.co/rJ24zzmmy4 pic.twitter.com/nHNoKZF5ww

- VigiMeteoFrance (@VigiMeteoFrance) September 20, 2020

Up to 450 millimeters in two hours

"The situation is developing favorably for most of the rivers in the department," said the prefecture on Saturday evening.

In the morning, downpours - up to 450 millimeters in two hours in places, had spilled over several localities in the Cévennes, forcing the authorities to put several hundred people to safety.

These rains had led to the swelling of many rivers, such as the Gardon in Anduze, and the cutting of several departmental roads.

During the day, water had rushed into several houses in the town, before withdrawing, leaving thick quantities of mud which the inhabitants tried in the evening to get rid of.

In the afternoon, a little more than a hundred houses located in the lower part of this city of some 3,400 inhabitants had to be evacuated, according to the mayor of Anduze Geneviève Blanc.

Mobilization of 650 people from Civil Security

In the town of Pont-d'Hérault, where 350 millimeters of rain accumulated, a missing 64-year-old motorist was still wanted, according to the prefecture.

"A person in his vehicle (…) would have been seen by witnesses carried away by a fairly strong current of water", declared the communication manager of the Gard firefighters, Eric Agrinier, on BFMTV.

About 650 civil security personnel, firefighters and soldiers as well as helicopters were mobilized to deal with these bad weather.

Dozens of rescues were carried out including six by helicopter.

More than 400 people have been brought to safety in the municipality of Valleraugue (200) and in the Saint-Jean-du Gard sector (220).

A 1900 record

Valleraugue, in the Cévennes, is one of the twenty “most affected” localities with cut communication, the radio and telephone networks having “fallen”, specifies the prefecture.

About 450 mm of rain was recorded in twelve hours.

The record dates from September 27, 1900 with 980 mm in ten hours.

The second wave of rains and thunderstorms that the authorities feared hit the Cévennes in the first part of the night from Saturday to Sunday, but with more limited quantities of 30 to 60 mm depending on the location, said the prefecture, before to move east.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili announced that they would visit the Gard on Sunday.

Society

Hérault and Lozère in orange vigilance for thunderstorms, Gard in red

Montpellier

An anti-overflow wall to protect the Montpellier University Hospital, plagued by flooding

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