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The aftermath of the storm.


Bugsy

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Not much happened here in Mayenne.  All quite quiet through the night, then the wind started to blow between 5am and 6am before dying down now at 10.30am. Really not much more than blowy days that I have had here before.  Had a bit of rain though, which was lucky as my paddy fields were starting to dry out. Although I have lots of trees, nothing to report on that front.

Bon chance everybody.

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[quote user="Lisleoise"]The pampas need cutting back now anyway - doing mine this week. It's enormous - makes a 3m diameter 'polo' when cut back. No damage here except neighbour's pool cover blown off and debris everywhere.[/quote]

Somebody told me that the way to deal with pampas is to set light to it, having never had pampas I can only pass this on in case it's of any help.

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Didn't sleep at all until about 7am this morning as it was horrendous! This morning the weather vane was down in the lane and the back corner of the hanger, that took the brunt of the wind, has been damaged. A 40ft roof beam with corrugated tin roof has been lifted up about 2ft and is now resting on top of the side wall rather than in its designated slot in the side wall. No roof tiles off at though. Lost power for about three hours this morning from about 4am onwards. Let's hope it's not something that will be repeated in the near future.

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It's good to hear so many of you have emerged unscathed; the radio this morning was giving nasty details, including the sad deaths and electricity being cut off for 1 million, I think it was. I hope everyone else from the forum is OK too; maybe we'll hear later. [:)]

Terrible news also from the earthquake and tsunami, with great loss of life and emormous damage. Those of us continuing our everyday lives in peace and quiet are very fortunate.

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In Saint Gilles Croix de Vie (Vendee coast) the wind absolutely howled all night.

This morning it quickly became sunny and calm. We walked round the harbour where the pompiers were pumping water out of some shops. There didn't look to be a lot of damage though (other than the flooding) - a few branches broken off trees and some aerials broken.
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This is from Ouest France on line ... La Faute.sur Mer is 10 minutes down the road from my place ...It must have been terrible for them .. The area is land reclaimed from the sea and is very flat ..

 

Five dead by drowning in Vendée. At least five drowned persons were found by helps on coastal region of the Vendée. «We have five deceases confirmed in the sector of La-Faute-sur-Mer and of Aiguillon-sur-Mer», two of the most affected villages by the violent winds which, conjugated in a tide of strong coefficient, drew levels d away '1,5 metre of water, pointed out Frederick Rose, manager of office of the prefecture of Vendée.


Helps also counted around thirty light injured men and rehoused about 70 persons after inundations caused by the conjunction of the violent winds and of a tide of strong coefficient, specified Frederick Rose, the manager of office of the prefecture of Vendée.


Two helicopters of Civil security and of Police station began flying over the zone to assess damage and to locate the persons forced to go up on their roofs, according to the same source. Authorities mobilised 450 sappers firemen and 160 policemen who wait for military reinforcements, while 120 000 homes have no more electricity in the department, according to the prefecture.

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Does anybody know ????    Our second home is a mobile home on a campsite at St Jean de Monts  in the Vendee  about a mile or so from the sea    Is it still there ???   Is it smashed to matchwood ????   Is it floating like Noahs Ark ???

I want to know   ( but I dont  If you know what I mean !)

We are due to arrrive for our 6 month sojorn soon - so keep your fingers crossed for us folks .

If anyone is local to St  Jean and knows any news ???

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Incredible winds last night and the noise was amazing. I put some earplugs in and slept peacefully.

No powercuts during the storm overnight - two hiccups this morning when the wind had dropped.

Lost one tile on the chimney. Not bad considering in perhaps 1999 our houses and barns lost their roofs.

No trees down in the forest just dead branches. It would probably have been worse if the trees had been in leaf.

The wind has been gusting most of the day - difficult kite flying weather. The only child in the vicinity came and 'helped' me fly I turned my back and he let out over 3 kilometres of line when I asked if he was going to reel it in he just smiled.

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  Oh my God ! Thats terrible Wooly ..I know it so well its where we shop !.. Most of the homes in the Village are single level houses like mine  and  L,Aiguillon has a big population of retired ...They could not  easily clamber up onto a roof ... .The tidal river goes right up through the village and is held in by a retainiing wall which I believe has failed ..this is so sad ..

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SE vendee.Was terrible last night.all night from 2300 until 0900.No elecy from middle of night until 1800 tonight with 3 cuts after initial restoration.Garage roof suffered on opposite side from wind direction where the roof tiles had obviously been sucked off, and the bottom layer of house roof tiles have been lifted.Has anyone found a 2.5m high photynia-blown off at ground level.? Later found embedded like a cutting in the garden hedge!!! To the insurance domain-tempete excess though 400euros!!! Mais oui,donc,alors.Must try and import some roof tiles from China tomorrow-bricos will have sold out of their stock of ten!At least we survived nearly 50 souls didnt.!!!!Maude
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It seems to me that without the digue the waves (the spring high tide is not for another 2 days) would have just swept in and receded as in any coastal flood plain, the digue may not have stopped them coming in but it sure did stop the water getting back out again. I was going to ask a question about the relative ground levels in the area but I see from Fredericks post that the land was reclaimed from the sea, no "re" about it, its the sea that does the reclaiming. Maybe it was once part of the landmass once but that would have been 65000 years ago

I see that L'le de Ré suffered a similar fate with digues being overcome, so I imagine that once again this is reclaimed land  with probably a digue all the way around the island rather like a paddling pool.

All of these areas are going to suffer flooding twice a day for quite some time to come until the digues are repaired.

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The temoignage of one of those displaced from their home where 27 neighbours died was somewhat telling.

" we have a brand new car which is ruined and the house was full of virtually new things" 

Its not as if France is short of building land, I reckon most people (not including children etc) chose to live there for their own reasons.

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