More horrible floods

[Gardian]

I was skimming through the 70 year anniversary edition of the Midi Libre today - a really worthwhile buy at 1.50E for anybody who lives down here.

What's clear is that severe floods in the Midi are nothing new. I haven't counted the number of occasions, but it's more than a few!

Happily we're on high ground here, so we take the view that if we get flooded, then everybody else has got a serious problem!

[Pickles]

[quote user="NormanH"]That looks worse than last week....and several of the photos are in the area where I go to the Hospital....

[/quote]

A few more pictures have been added to the Midi Libre site:

http://www.midilibre.fr/2014/10/07/intemperies-dans-le-montpellierain-toutes-vos-images,1061987.php

There is a heck of a lot of damage, and when you see the high-water marks inside people's properties, it is quite sobering.

[NormanH]

An English friend who saw those commented that it must have rushed down a mountainside. Of course the amazing thing is that this is on the coastal plain, so the water just came from the sky...

[Pickles]

[quote user="NormanH"]An English friend who saw those commented that it must have rushed down a mountainside. Of course the amazing thing is that this is on the coastal plain, so the water just came from the sky...[/quote]

Incidentally, NH, email sent.

[Pickles]

And it's not over yet: vigilance orange for Hérault, Gard, Lozere and Ardeche ...

http://www.midilibre.fr/2014/10/09/herault-gard-lozere-et-ardeche-devraient-passer-en-vigilance-orange,1063497.php

[Gardian]

Continual storm through the night & bucket rain.

Had to turn back en route to the market this morning due to flooding.

Just had a call from the Mairie - "Vigilance Rouge in the Gard". Good that they've taken the trouble to set up a warning system like that.

[NormanH]

Today it was the Gard; particularly Sommières:

http://www.midilibre.fr/2014/10/10/intemperies-dans-le-gard-les-premieres-images,1063798.php

[Val_2]

I have just been on the meteofrance site and before I even got to my region the page flashed up red alerte for the Gard region and for high vigilance.

People down there have my sympathy especially those already flooded and tried to dry themselves out and then it happened again. My son's girlfriend south of Perpignan has not had any of the weather they have further east along the coast and is thankful.

[Val_2]

Just seen the latest pics on TF1, absolutely horrendous and heartbraking for property owners. Shows that buying a house near what you see is a little river or stream can turn into a nightmare in just a few hours of rain.

[idun]

I am so sorry for everyone who is suffering from these floods. I never imagined that it would go on and on as it has. What I thought had sadly been a freak one off storm is no longer.

We lived next to a ruisseau that used to become a raging torrent when the snows melted. Our neighbour used to say that we would never flood because we were too close to the mountains and that people who lived further downstream would flood. What used to worry me was some of the locals would cut down trees and simply throw branches they didn't want into the ruisseau. If we saw them we would tell them not to do it and report them to the Mairie, as with a heavy flow of water, these idiots actions could make a sort of barrage.

When we first moved in, in spite of rubbish collection twice a week, we would see some locals, mindless morons, simply throwing their bags of household waste into this ruisseau too. That eventually stopped.

[Pickles]

Apparently they are expecting another deluge this evening ... and the forecast for the next few days is not enticing either.

[andyh4]

WE have had 18cm rain overnight and are forecast another 30 before lunchtime tomorrow.

All of that is going to end up in the rivers and a little further west these drain through the Cevennes towards Gard.

Good luck to all who are there or have property there.

[Pickles]

There is a suggestion that vigilance rouge will be maintained until MONDAY MORNING. YIKES!!!!

PS: note to NH: email is awaiting you.

[Gardengirl]

[quote user="Val_2"]

I have just been on the meteofrance site and before I even got to my region the page flashed up red alerte for the Gard region and for high vigilance.

[/quote]

Yes, it really jumps out at you - I wondered what on earth I'd pressed for that to happen!

It was a dreadful night; I was woken by a huge thunderclap at about 01.00 and didn't get to sleep again. The storm seemed to stay directly overhead for long periods of time, and the flashing of the lightning was incredibly bright, even though the shutters and my eyes were tightly closed.

Our town hasn't actually flooded, although our apartment block's park did - minor, compared to what others have, are and will suffer during these alerts. The water has gone down during this afternoon, when it's been hot and sunny, 24C , just like yesterday's weather. This afternoon I took advantage of the sunshine to walk the short distance into town; apart from manhole covers up and water spurting out, there are minor amounts of tarmac up, which have been swept along into the nearby car park. It was like a ghost town, 99% of businesses were shut, as only people living close by would have ventured out, and deliveries couldn't be made. Our 3 small supermarkets are all closed, all of the banks, and the road by the big Carrefour on the outskirts was impassable this morning.

Dutch neighbours who planned to return home tomorrow went to ask advice at the gendarmerie; they were told that under no circumstances should they set out, as so many roads were in a bad state. Watching news of Nimes, it's good to know that the flood defences built following the last two terrible floods, sending water down concrete 'river' ways, have worked well. Some flooding happened in Nimes, but nowhere like as bad as at Montpellier over recent weeks.

And, yes, Pickles, they are saying that the red alert will last until Monday. Sadly, we had many events ploanned in town this weekend, as well as a larger than normal market; there is meant to be a big event for breast cancer month, with stalls, entertainment, a walk and a run. On Sunday a 'taste' day has been planned, with the main restaurants represented at stalls, giving out tastes of their main courses and desserts, as well as aperos available and entertainment, not forgetting the waiters' race around town holding a tray of glasses. There's also meant to be 'Run with Sarah' at the Pont du Gard; a 10km run to raise funds for her, with Sarah being pushed round in her wheelchair by her family and a team of helpers. I do hope that at least can take place, but it's doubtful.

I wish all in the Gard and other affected areas a more peaceful night.

[Gardian]

I'm told that it did rain a bit last night. Unlike GG, i managed to sleep the sleep of the righteous !!

ThereS a tiny 'river' at the bottom of the hill off of our estate - normally, you'd be able to paddle across it and barely get your feet wet. This morning it was the proverbial raging torrent. Roads impassable everywhere, local main village cut off and word that the big main river is about to flood.

Apart from that, its been really quite nice today - 25C and sunny.

Alerts from the Mairie that its all going to kick off again in an hour or two though.

Its not good and a lot of people have been seriously affected, but the Thames Valley & Somerset were hit (I suspect) to a worse extent earlier this year.

[Gardengirl]

Things are getting back to normal; friends from various villages managed to get into town for the market

this morning, although some had to take big diversions. The Pont du Gard

re-opened yesterday; we drove along and although there was a lot of

rubbish in trees further along the Gardon, the PdG area was clear, and

the water had gone down a lot. We drove along the road to Collias,

where there were huge amounts of damage - we parked in the usual place

but couldn't walk along the Alzon as the road surface was missing and

there was a lot of damage near the river as far as we could see. It

was good that the canoe hire companies had an early warning - they had

removed all equipment before the storm arrived on Thursday night. We

passed quite a number of swimming pool liners, plus garden seat covers

and other household goods in the trees and of course masses and masses of

bamboo canes everywhere, which had been carried along in the torrent.

Thursday

night's storm stayed overhead for several hours, and we later found

that it's a feature of the storms just now, they have been stationary

each evening over a different area, so although we all had red alerts

for several days, the rain and thinder was miniscule compared with

Thursday's and some other poor souls suffered what we had on Thursday night. Over the weekend it was an area on the edge of

Nimes, and there were ten lightning strikes, three of which caused house

fires. So our town was lucky on Thursday night - we've not heard of any

fires caused by the storms.

The hall by the cathedral which was meant to be the centre of the breast cancer day events, which had to be cancelled, turned into the refuge run by the Red Cross for people who had to be rescued from their homes, some of our friends amongst them; they soon found refuge with friends, but with a wrecked house and cars etc things are going to take a long time to get sorted out. There were 10 REd Cross centres open apparently, and 3 will be staying open for a while longer, ours included. People who have been flooded more than once say that the flood water was deeper in 2002, but it rose faster this year.

The weather each day has been so pleasant since the big storm and each has felt quite festive in town, as another night with a red alert passed. We've been having temperatures of 21C to 24C, which might be even higher later as it's still getting warmer. (EDIT - it's starting to cool rapidly at 15.15!)However, an interview in the Midi Libre with a Gard meteo official yesterday said that there might be another 'épisode cévenol' next Wednesday! We're driving home on Saturday!!

[mogs]

Sorry to hear about the catastrophy in your area GG, and how sad that the breast cancer fundraising day was cancelled. I know from experience just how much planning goes into these fundraising events.

Have a safe journey back to blighty on Saturday.

[idun]

'épisode cévenol'

Got me there, I don't know what that means, I thought that cevenol was from the Cevennes, but the meaning of an episode from the cevennes? is it an 'episode' as in incident? in the cevennes?

Could someone please explain, thankyou.

[Gardengirl]

Thanks Mogs; it has been a bit grim, but thankfully nobody was killed in

'our' storms, although in the earlier floods in September several were,

sadly. Yes, these events do take a huge amount of organisation. Both the breast cancer events and the 'Run with Sarah' at the Pont du

Gard were attracting many hundreds of entrants, plus large numbers of

stall holders/info stalls etc as well as the general public who were

expected in large numbers.

We're looking forward to a pleasant journey back, but I've been hearing that there's been a lot of rain in England too, maybe not on the scale we've seen, but probably more than enough!

Idun, it's a term used in the Languedoc Roussillon area by forecasters,

the press and people generally, although in other

areas I know that similar occurrences are sometimes known épisodes méditerranéens. It's most often seen in September, October, which is when many of the worst storms happen, thinking of 2002 and many others.

It's

used when huge storms build up in the area and enormous amounts of rain

fall over hills, including on the Cevennes which adds to what has

already fallen further south and totally saturated the ground. It

happens when warmer, moist air from the south is blown towards the

Cevennes and meets colder air, forcing the warm air upwards. It then

cools, and these huge storms take place.

That's my understanding

of it, but no doubt the internet will have many pages to keep those

interested in more correct and technical items for hours!

[NormanH]

This year it has been compounded by the fact that the Mediterranean is abnormally warm (22° in October) and so the air over it is heavily charged with moisture. These episodes traditionally happen when the warm air reaches the foothills of the Cévennes, cools off and can no longer hold the moisture but  this time it happened as soon as the mass of warm wet air hit dry land, i.e over Montpellier.

Only the forth one was a real 'cévénole' in that it was over the Gard.

[NormanH]

This year it has been compounded by the fact that the Mediterranean is abnormally warm (22° in October) and so the air over it is heavily charged with moisture. These episodes traditionally happen when the warm air reaches the foothills of the Cévennes, cools off and can no longer hold the moisture but  this time it happened as soon as the mass of warm wet air hit dry land, i.e over Montpellier.

Only the forth one was a real 'cévénole' in that it was over the Gard.

This is a region of micro-climates.

There is a clear demarcation between Béziers and Montpelleir around Sète with these events happening to the east;

an another line going west from Béziers at about Carcassonne on the méridien verte where the climate suddenly becomes much more Atlantic dominated by west winds and the vegetation changes too...

[Gardengirl]

You're quite right Norman, but around the area it's all spoken of as being épisodes cévenol. We're in the Gard, and people are very generous with their phraseology! Although if the forecast for another episode on Wednesday arrives, I'm sure they'd be equally generous and donate it to another area!

Your mention of the micro-climates is interesting, it's something we've noticed in other areas too. I was speaking to a couple at the Pont du Gard who live in the Gard but closer to Avignon, and who must share the micro-climate they have there - and maybe the Mistral too, which they're welcome to! They had been shocked to see and hear in the media what awful storms there had been, they'd had nothing like that, so they were doing a little tour to see for themselves whether or not the papers had exaggerated!

I was hearing that Italy has been having awful storms and flooding, Parma and Genoa were mentioned.

[Cendrillon]

GG we have had constant rain since 6 Oct here in U.K. according to the weather forecasters it is coming from France LOL!

Not cold but wet and grey with just a few bright spells in between. Warming up this w/end and actually sunny today for once. [:)]

Stay safe everyone in the stormy areas, we are not really hearing about any of this on the news in the U.K.

[Pickles]

http://www.midilibre.fr/2014/11/02/l-herault-et-le-gard-pourraient-a-nouveau-etre-touches-par-de-violents-orages,1074873.php

[NormanH]

I'm in Béziers at the moment [:'(]