Storm Nils batters France: 100mph winds and floods depart virtually 1,000,000 folks with out electrical energy and not less than one particular person lifeless
France has been battered by 100mph winds and heavy flooding as deadly Storm Nils leaves almost a million people without electricity.
The storm, which hit on Wednesday, has left one man dead and plunged more than 900,000 homes into darkness.
Schools have shut, trains have been cancelled and traffic speeds have been limited as the country braces for more powerful winds.
A truck driver was killed in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine when a tree branch fell on his vehicle in the middle of the night.
Another person was seriously injured after being hit by a falling tree in Castelsarrasin, Tarn-et-Garonne.
Streets have been engulfed in water and a woman was rescued from her partially submerged vehicle in Haute-Garonne by firefighters after she attempted to cross a flooded road before becoming stuck in a ditch.
While around 30 residents in Gironde were evacuated from a quays facing an overflowing river, with ten having spent the night sheltering in a high school.
‘The storm is preventing the proper flow of water, so my colleagues and I remain on absolute alert because we don’t know exactly where it will lead,’ Mayor Bruno Marty said.
Avenues have been engulfed in water as Storm Nils brings heavy rainfall across France
Pictured: A pedestrian walks his dog along a submerged street as floodwaters from the swollen Garonne river inundate streets in La Reole, south-western France
The storm, which hit on Wednesday, has left one man dead and plunged more than 850,000 homes into darkness
Avalanches are feared in France’s mountainous regions, especially the Alps, as Storm Nils brings heavy snow.
Departments in the south west of the country faced their strongest ever winds last night.
‘It remains a critical situation,’ Sébastien Léas, a forecaster with France’s national weather agency, said.
The ‘remarkable’ storm is comparable to Storm Goretti, he added, which caused widespread damage in the northwest of the country in January.
Footage shows murky water overflowing onto roads and high tides rising up to bridges.
Four departments have been placed on red alert and 30 under orange.
Laurent Nuñez, the Minister of the Interior, said: ‘I urge everyone to exercise extreme caution, limit their travel, and follow local safety instructions’.
In the Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales departments schools will remain closed on Thursday.
Videos and pictures shows murky water overflowing onto roads and high tides rising up to bridges
A truck driver was killed in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine when a tree branch fell on his vehicle in the middle of the night
More than 900,000 homes are without electricity following the storm and flooding
And in Brittany, Centre-Val de Loire, and Occitanie, trains have been cancelled.
Traffic restrictions are in place on roads which HGVs over 7.5 tonnes banned from driving over 60km per hour in certain regions.
Electricity network operator Endis said 900,000 homes were without power on Thursday morning, with 485,000 homes affected in Nouvelle-Aquitaine and 318,000 in Occitanie.
The storm has also swept through neighbouring Spain, with the government declaring impacted areas emergency zones following recent flooding.
