Stéphane Place, edited by Gauthier Delomez with AFP 9:26 p.m., December 10, 2021

After torrential rains, the Landes and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques are the two departments placed in red vigilance because of the risk of flooding.

The rise in water levels is impressive on the spot, and luckily no serious accident has yet to be deplored.

REPORTING

Abundant rains and a southerly wind that melts the snowpack at altitude: the gaves, these torrents of the Pyrenees, and rivers like the Nive in Bayonne, left their beds on Friday, causing flooding in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Landes, placed on red alert.

"Despite an injured person, we have had to deplore neither serious accidents nor deaths, it must be said that the firefighters have intervened more than 250 times in recent hours," Interior Minister Gérald told the press. Darmanin at the end of the afternoon, after having made a point with the prefects.

He did not give further details about the injured person.

"Exceptional" rains and a melting snowpack

"The situation is under control", assured on France 3 Aquitaine the prefect Eric Spitz, explaining this sudden rise of water by the "exceptional" rains and the arrival of a southerly wind which caused the melting of the snowpack of the Pyrenees , further swelling the waterways.

This also makes the snow cover unstable and Météo France has placed the risk of avalanches in the Pyrenees from "strong" to "very strong".

"Our concern, emphasized Eric Spitz, goes especially in the Laruns sector where there should still be 100 mm of water falling and where the melting snow will cause an additional 40 mm".

In this Béarn town of nearly 1,200 inhabitants, the sloping streets were crossed by water from the Gave d'Ossau.

About fifty people evacuated in Bayonne

According to the prefect, in Bayonne, around fifty people had to be evacuated from Petit Bayonne, at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers.

Onlookers gathered there to capture images of the Nive overflowing on the quays.

So much so that the loudspeakers playing Christmas music repeated calls for caution.

The prefecture has banned the rugby match between Aviron Bayonnais and US Montauban, scheduled for Friday evening at the Jean-Dauger stadium in Bayonne.

Mayor Jean-René Etchegaray has asked businesses along the Nive to remain closed, while with the rains and the tide, the level of the river could still rise at the end of the day.

"We also expect a long north-westerly swell on the Basque coast during the episode that could thwart the flow in the estuaries," said Météo France.

Red vigilance decreed in the middle of the afternoon

In the middle of the day, the red flood vigilance was decreed by Vigicrues in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, but also the neighboring Landes where the level of the Adour worries and where the gaves of Pau and Oloron caused flooding in Peyrehorade.

In this area, specified Gérald Darmanin, "we have started population evacuations, particularly in 4 municipalities in the Landes, more than 400 people are concerned".

"It is now the Landes which are the most concerned", he assured.

In addition, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, 18 schools in the department and two colleges were closed, and roads cut.

In the Hautes-Pyrénées, around sixty roads were closed to traffic.

According to the SNCF, train traffic was interrupted between Bayonne and St-Jean-Pied-de-Port following a "landslide on the railway".

The A63 towards Bordeaux was flooded in the Bayonne sector, according to Vinci, who reports that entry is prohibited for all vehicles in Bayonne-sud, and exit is compulsory.

Power cuts and landslides

At the start of the afternoon, according to Enedis, there were "700 customers without electricity in the Basque Country, 300 in Béarn and 1,000 in the Hautes-Pyrénées". In addition, landslides took place in Biriatou, south of Hendaye, along the Spanish border, where around twenty residents had to be relocated.

Further inland, in Itxassou, bad weather caused "the partial collapse of a hill" Thursday during the day, without causing any casualties.

In this village of 2,000 inhabitants, Jean-Claude, 37, scooped 40 cm of water from the Nive in his house "which was new" and suffered its second flood in less than seven years.

"In 2014, we were told that it was the centennial flood, and there it is already starting again," he laments to an AFP correspondent.