NormanH Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 and west Hérault.several people reported dead overnight.I hope Judith and nomoss aren't suffering too badlyhttp://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2018/10/15/01016-20181015LIVWWW00121-direct-inondations-aude-orages-pluie-9-morts.phpEnglishhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/15/heavy-storms-cause-deadly-floods-in-south-western-france Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 I hope that they are well away from water courses, safe and dry with no damage to cope with. It doesn’t seem long since Judith’s house was flooded. She posted this morning, so hopefully all is well with her.I was following the storm alerts - we had some out for the Gard but fortunately for our area they moved further west, where they received large quantities of rain.I read that the death toll has risen to 13 with other people missing. A terrible time for many people, thank goodness for the emergency services. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 Happily, most of our town, including our house, is on top of a ridge, from where we can see our local river, the Argent-Double, boiling past in full flood.The river bed, through both here and the town upstream, has been cleared of growth and debris regularly over the years since the bad floods in 1999.Unfortunately that may make it worse for people downstream.It rained so much in the last few days that the ground has become so saturated, or maybe was so dry and impermeable after having no rain since May, that water has come up through the concrete floor of our garage.My wife went into town this morning to post a letter, and saw that the schools, post office, pharmacy, and many businesses are closed.She asked a lady in the street, who said that all the roads into the town were blocked by flooding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 15, 2018 Author Share Posted October 15, 2018 Glad to hear it wasn't worse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 [quote user="NormanH"]Glad to hear it wasn't worse[/quote]Thanks, NH.We'll probably have a drive around tomorrow to see how bad it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 Just watching France 2 news, horrific scenes.Trouble was that's the alerte rouge was only put in place at 6am and that was ill too late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 Unfortunately, the new hospital was built in a known floodable zone.[url]https://www.francetvinfo.fr/meteo/inondations/inondations-dans-l-aude/tous-les-patients-sont-dans-les-etages-l-hopital-de-carcassonne-egalement-touche-par-les-inondations-dans-l-aude_2987057.html[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 Reporting in, thanks NormanH, and GG.Nomoss, the Argent double does come down towards us, and also the Espene, the Ognon, never mind that the canal and the Aude are a mile away too. Fortunately, even though all the rivers burst, and the waters from the Ognon which is the nearest to us got to within 50m, the drains sere struggling to cope, but once it stopped raining they managed., Sadly, it was the turn of another part of Olonzac to be flooded, not as badly as we were (yes, GG, Jan 17 for us), but enough I feel sure. That was probably the Espene, they are still clearing debris from last year, and the beds are by no means clear yet. Bize Minervois got it bad too, the boundary between 11 and 34 is very confused around here, but that was their own river flooding, not the Aude. Nomoss is quite right, it has been a very wet and cold year, 3 storm alerts last week, and seemingly constant rain, and the ground is sodden. We lost power overnight probably because of the wind, but once we'd found all the switches which had been triggered it was OK. We can only be grateful that we were not in one of those villages north of Carca ... Most of the crossing points of the Aude were flooded yesterday, and with the Aude still on red alert, we have no idea where we can yet get through. And more rain forecast until Thursday. So still praying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 [quote user="idun"]Just watching France 2 news, horrific scenes.Trouble was that's the alerte rouge was only put in place at 6am and that was ill too late.[/quote]MAybe that was the Aude, because we got ours in the Herault at lunchtime on Sunday, so we did have time to prepare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 Our main road to Carcassonne is washed away just south of Villallier, but it seems we can get to Carcassonne by going cross-country via Marseillette to reach the N113 at Capendu, provided the traffic is flowing past Trèbes.There is a map available showing all the closed roads and slow traffic, which is regularly updated, and might be useful to some, here: [url]http://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2018-aude-floods[/url]You can zoom in and out using your mouse wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 16, 2018 Author Share Posted October 16, 2018 Thanks for that link it is very interesting as well as useful.The problems are much more widespread than the two main areas featured in the media which has concentrated on the places where there were deaths.For example the area between Capestang and Narbonne or the north easten approach to Carcassonne which I often travel with one of my BlaBlaCar lifts (coming in from your direction via Villagly)Even the Minervois (the 610) looks to be blocked at Puicheric; and it doesn't look good around Olonzac either.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 I've bookmarked it to check before we go anywhere, as it seems to be updated fairly regularly.The road through Villegly to Carcasonne is not much use now, as a section about 100 metres long has disappeared into the fields, together with an Intermarché artic. just south of Villallier, and will need a new foundation about 2-3 metres above ground level before they even think about a new surface.Best route for you might be the A9 and A61 for now.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 My builder managed to get her to Olonzac today from Douzens, said Puicheric was a mess, and I know the Minervoise at Homps was flooded, but don't know if it still is ... it's now possible to get to Lezignan from here too, so things are slowly improving, but yes, there are many more areas affected than those on the news. We have discovered that a friend in Trebes is flooded, and confined to the upper floor, we have not been able to contact her since to find out if she is now out and safe .. I would be very surprised to find that Trebes was passable - yet. Rain still forecast for Wed / Thursday, but with luck we should be over the worst now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 This link gives better details https://www.inforoute11.fr/Some routes still difficult and Trebes is a no -no still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 [quote user="Judith"]This link gives better details https://www.inforoute11.fr/Some routes still difficult and Trebes is a no -no still.[/quote]Thanks, Judith. Much better detail.Looks like we can make it via Trèbes if we really need to go to Carcassonne, but we'll give it a few days, I think. We avoid Trèbes at the best of times.It was a bottleneck on the RN113, as was Carcassonne itself, back in the 1980's, and they made very little real improvement once the Autoroute was built. The Carcassonne rocade was begun in the 1980's and took until 2008 to complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Agree about Trebes, but our only way through if we use the Minervoise. I find the 113 just as bad ... I rarely use the top road, the one with all the towns beginning with V, near you, Nomoss by the sound of it, but now with the road gone (like a village I lived in in Wharfedale, it lost its bridge which was its link between the two halves of the town a couple of years ago) it will take some time and a long detour to get from one side to the other. I think the worst of the storms are now over, we are left with the clearing up. At least we have now heard that our friend in Trebes has been rescued from her upper story vigil. So our prayers there were answered at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now