Ajaccio (AFP)

Just over 20,000 homes are still without electricity Monday morning after the passage of the Fabien storm, which affected Corsica, where sea and air transport resumed after a weekend of suspension.

According to the manager of the electricity distribution network Enedis, around 18,000 households, outside Corsica, remained deprived of electricity on Monday around 8:30 am, mainly in New Aquitaine. The two regions most affected are New Aquitaine and Occitania, and Gironde is the department with the largest number of homes without electricity (10,000 at 8:00 a.m., according to the Enedis regional Twitter account.

In Corsica, according to the EDF Twitter account in Corsica, some 3,500 households were without power on Monday morning.

After a weekend of quasi-paralysis where Corsica was cut off from the continent by sea and by air, air and sea links between Corsica and the continent were able to resume.

Monday, orange vigilance for "strong winds" was lifted at 6:00 am by Météo-France. At the height of the episode, notes Vigimétéofrance, the anemometer at the Cap Sagro station in Haute-Corse reached a maximum threshold of 216 km / h.

The storm caused material damage but did not make any victim on the island and after a "very calm" night, "no aggravation was recorded", indicated the coordinator of security in Corsica with the prefecture.

Air traffic resumed Monday morning at the airports of Bastia, Figari and Calvi. That of Ajaccio, flooded during the storm, was however still closed.

Passengers whose flight was canceled on Saturday or Sunday were able to check in for a departure on Monday or Tuesday, according to Air Corsica, which operates the vast majority of flights to the island in winter.

The company has set up a bus transfer to link Bastia airport from Ajaccio airport. Passengers joined by AFP, boarded the bus at 8:00 am, described "a large crowd at the airport to board the buses".

On the boat side, traffic resumed Monday morning, with changes to ships and passenger schedules, however. Corsica Linea, which counted 6,000 of its passengers in difficulty during the weekend, scheduled two new crossings on Monday.

Rail traffic was still stopped on the other hand on the island, due to falling trees on the tracks.

© 2019 AFP