The snow, fallen in abundance, has wreaked havoc on the roads of the south-east of France and provoked a drama in the Rhône-Alpes region. A 63-year-old driver died Thursday, November 14, in the evening, in the town of Roche, Isere, after the fall of a tree, we learned from the prefecture.

He was trying to move a fallen tree under the weight of the snow around 7 pm, with the reinforcement of other people, when a second tree fell on them. A 27-year-old man was also injured and hospitalized in Bourgoin-Jallieu.

The snowfall has caused power cuts, depriving some 300,000 households of power in the Drôme, Isère and Ardèche, according to Enedis.

"We have 300,000 homes without electricity, there is a lot of snow, night conditions were difficult and it is difficult to say for now the date of recovery," said Robin Devogelaere of BFMTV. director of communications of the manager of the electricity distribution network.

In particular, two power lines were cut. A first incident occurred around 19 h 30 Tournon-sur-Rhône (Ardeche) when under the weight of the snow a power line of 20 000 volts fell, told AFP the prefecture of Ardeche.

Train traffic interrupted

In Isère, the SNCF announced that the train traffic was interrupted on three axes since Grenoble "at least until Friday noon" because of the presence of trees fallen on the tracks or threatening to do it.

The Ardèche, like the Rhone, Loire, Ain, Isère, Drôme and Saône-et-Loire, was placed on Thursday in orange vigilance snow-ice.

In the Rhone, heavy goods vehicles were banned at 4 pm on all highways around Lyon, such as the A6, A7, A42, A43, A46 and A432. These vehicles were also to be stored at various points of the Ain motorway network, where the prefecture activated its weather plan to better manage road traffic.

In the Loire, school transport is suspended Friday, announced the departmental council stating that "schools will remain open nevertheless."

Up to 20 centimeters of snow at low altitude and up to 30 centimeters from 300 meters are expected, according to Météo France, stating that snowfall should gradually stop in the south during the night from Thursday to Friday.

With AFP