France: after the floods in the Alpes-Maritimes, these villages emerging from isolation

Audio 01:18

The village of Breil-sur-Roya after the mudslide due to torrential rains, in the south-east of France, October 4, 2020. NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP

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6 min

The floods that devastated this Friday, October 3, regions of south-eastern France and northern Italy left at least four dead and left behind scenes of desolation and hundreds of people destitute.

In a fierce struggle, villages and hamlets emerge from isolation.

And it's time to see the damage.

Example in Malaussène, a village now accessible at the cost of a long detour, but where you will have to wait before a return to normal.

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The upper part of the village is no longer cut off from the world, reports our special envoy to Malaussène,

Stéphane Burgatt

.

But the district of the old station is devastated: rubble, mud and a stream out of its bed ... the clearing work will be long.

“ 

There is a flow of stones and mud ... It's a disaster!

It all came from here, there was like a torrent that came down from there.

And at mountain level, there was a big landslide.

It caused great damage, fortunately material for the moment, well we hope, we will see ...

 "

Gaëlle came to see the damage and try to recover some things in her house, two days after a nightmarish evacuation in the dead of night.

There was damage, several houses were buried, at least four,

 " she tells us.

We, our neighbors, had to come out of the rubble, a woman with two children.

And then afterwards, we were evacuated by firefighters.

There are at least 40 people who have been evacuated.

But we have no electricity, no water.

There is the mountain which collapsed, what ... You have to climb to reach the house on foot.

It's hard to live: we have no access, our cars are blocked.

So, we can't go to work.

We have nothing, it's terrible.

 "

Elders like Peter can't get over it either.

“ 

It's abominable.

It's hellish, we've never seen that, never, never ...

 "

The concern is once again taking hold of its inhabitants, with an announced return of the rain, even if it is of lesser extent.

At least four dead in France and Italy

The body of a man was found this Sunday in his submerged car in Saint-Martin-Vésubie, in the Alpes-Maritimes, bringing to at least four the number of deaths caused by the deadly weather.

Two days after the

torrential rains

, the firefighters of the Alpes-Maritimes still counted eight people " 

missing

 ", and 12 others " 

wanted

 ", against 13 a little earlier in the evening, after the discovery Sunday evening of a safe person. in Saint-Martin-de-Vésubie.

The missing people were washed away in front of witnesses.

On the Italian side, the authorities have already reported three deaths.

In addition, at least four bodies were discovered Sunday stranded on the Italian coast, announced the Ansa news agency and other media, specifying that the Italian and French authorities were jointly seeking to establish their identity.

As the Ligurian authorities have not reported any missing so far, the investigators' favored hypothesis is that some of the victims are people reported missing or wanted in France, according to the agency.

The French authorities have not commented on this information.

More than 950 firefighters were still at work on the French side of the border on Sunday, continuing to reconnoitre still isolated areas, participating in clearing operations and supplying the populations.

with AFP

See also: France: the search for the missing continues, families separated by cut roads

The #TempeteAlex hit the #AlpesMaritimes causing extensive damage.


🚁 Significant resources have been deployed to provide #assistance to the inhabitants of # disaster areas.


The security forces are always fully mobilized to search for the missing persons.

pic.twitter.com/Yk9Fw3i4li

  Ministry of the Interior (@Interieur_Gouv) October 4, 2020

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