Storms in Corsica: from Sagone to Calvi, the road to desolation

Frédéric Michel, edited by Laura Laplaud 9:10 a.m., August 22, 2022

Five days after the deadly storms that swept through the island of beauty, the executive council of Corsica warns of "the essential lessons to be learned" from the violent storm which left five dead, around twenty injured and significant material damage.

We could have better anticipated the arrival of this storm of exceptional violence, with gusts measured at more than 200 km / h, can we read in a press release from the executive council which recommends the installation of "measurement buoys" off the island to anticipate extreme episodes.

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Significant material damage

Between Ajaccio and Calvi, on the west coast of the island, the damage from the storm is still visible, especially on the Liamone beach where debris from boats is piled up.

A little further, at the entrance to Cargèse, the technicians of Enedis, who came to reinforce the EDF agents, are busy to restore power.

"We see that we have been useful, we are in the process of restoring a last section, we have worked all weekend", explains one of them.

Almost all subscribers have been reconnected to the network.

Odette, who lives in Cargèse, is relieved.

"Two and a half days without electricity, without telephone, without Internet, 24 hours without water, it was very difficult", she says.

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On leaving the village, chainsaw in hand, Jérôme cuts the few trees and branches that are still in danger of falling.

"I take this opportunity to clean up and I'm going to feed the cows with all the leaves. In some places there are a lot of trees that have fallen."

Dozens of boats have failed on the coasts and in Balagne, the winds have brought down dozens of gigantic pines.

Antoni Santini is the manager of the Dolce Vita campsite in Calvi where a young Italian woman was seriously injured.

"We have material damage which is quite significant, well, the worst remains the bodily injury. For me, we had made every effort, we pruned several hundred trees, but it was not branches that fell, this are whole trees," he says.

"A fear that will probably never leave me"

For Anthony Santini, this storm is a trauma.

"This trauma today generates a fear that will probably never leave me. There are trunks more than a meter in diameter that have fallen, trees that are around thirty meters tall. We cannot fight against winds at 200 km/h, unless I can build shelters as I was able to ask Mr. Darmanin."

Except that to be able to build a shelter, you have to apply for a building permit and in the case of this campsite manager, the permit is not granted.

"We are a registered site, a classified wooded area, today the town planning rules do not allow us to build a shelter", explains Anthony Santini.

The campsite closed until the end of the week

"You have to be aware that a campsite like this, from the moment the alert is issued, it takes several hours to evacuate it in good order. When you don't have an alert like this this time, or if in the future, alerts have to intervene at very short notice, there is no other solution than to shelter people in hard."

For security reasons, the campsite will remain closed at least until the end of the week.