Normandy beaches hit by a deadly storm, fires in the South

Arthur Pereira, edited by Romain Rouillard with AFP 3:38 p.m., June 19, 2022

France finds some air this Sunday after a particularly intense heat wave this Saturday with peaks of 43 degrees in the South-West.

But this day of Saturday was also marked by violent storms on the Normandy coast. 

The report shows one dead and three minor injuries evacuated to hospital.

In a few minutes, everything changed on part of the Channel coast and the sun's rays gave way to powerful gusts of wind approaching 100 km / h.

The sky darkened, plunging the fine sand beaches into darkness for almost 25 minutes.

Tables, parasols and chairs were swept away by the blast and the furniture was thrown over tens of meters.

More than sixty rescue operations were carried out during the night... 

The South hit by the flames

In the south, the firefighters are mobilized to put out the fires which are multiplying, as on the military base of Canjuers in the Var where 600 hectares have gone up in smoke.

For 24 hours, 280 firefighters have been fighting the flames as Captain Stéphane Nepper explains: "The fire is no longer progressing in particular on the front sector. The combined actions of land and air resources yesterday made it possible to limit the progression on that side. And all night, the teams mobilized to treat the selvedges on the right and left flanks as much as possible to avoid repeats during the night because the wind returned to the sector and the hygrometry (the humidity level, Editor's note) is very low today. This creates favorable conditions for the resumption of fires" 

>>

- The vagaries of the weather pose the risk of a drop in harvests this year

Also in Aveyron, firefighters put an end to a fire that ravaged more than 430 hectares.

The flames broke out on Friday in this town, about fifteen kilometers from Millau.