Flood alert in the South-West, a flooded hospital in Gironde

Europe 1 with AFP 6:19 p.m., February 11, 2024

The orange flood alert was triggered on Sunday in four departments in the south-west of France, with in particular overflows around the edge of the Arcachon basin, in Gironde, where the ground floor of a hospital was flooded and around fifteen patients evacuated. In these four departments of the Atlantic coast, namely Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Landes and Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the Vigicrues site reported a "risk of flooding generating significant overflows".

In Arès, the Wallerstein private hospital (133 beds) was partially flooded with around fifteen centimeters of water on the ground floor, a first since 2009. This forced the authorities to move several patients and trigger the plan . white, crisis management system. “The emergency department and surgery had to be redispatched to the establishment,” Xavier Daney, mayor of Arès, explained to AFP, saying he hoped for a return to normal “in two days”, once the establishment cleaned up.

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40 to 50 cm of water

At the highest tide, early Sunday morning, the Gironde firefighters carried out a dozen interventions due to rising water levels around the Arcachon basin, with overflows of up to 40 or 50 cm in height. water in places. In Gujan-Mestras (Gironde), three people in motorhomes parked at the port had to be rescued around 5:00 a.m. after their two vehicles were caught in the water. “They are not injured, we have brought them to safety,” an officer from the Gironde departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS) told AFP.

The orange flood alert concerns in particular the Gironde estuary and the confluence between the Nive and the Adour (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). During the weekend, Météo-France had also issued an orange alert for wave-submersion on a large western coast of the country but it was largely lifted on Sunday. Only five departments, from Vendée to Pyrénées-Atlantiques, were affected by yellow vigilance at 4:00 p.m. At 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning, the height of the waves had reached 4.4 m at Cap-Ferret (Gironde) and 5.4 m at Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), according to Météo-France.

In Capbreton, in the Landes, the strong waves caused damage, notably to a seafront restaurant whose window was damaged, according to a photo published by the establishment. In the north-west of the country, while according to Météo-France the Karlotta depression ended up losing intensity, the yellow wave-submersion vigilance ended from Calvados to Pas-de-Calais via Seine-Maritime and the Sum.