The French and Italian bailout intensified its search efforts on Sunday after floods passed through several villages near the border between the two countries, causing heavy damage and killing two other people in Italy.
Eight others remained missing in the French aspect of the border after storms, torrential rains and flash floods hit the area, taking roads and houses, cutting entire villages and causing landslides.
Breil-sur-Roya, a French village near the Italian border, scene of devastation with dust-buried houses and dumped cars trapped in the riverbed, said an AFP journalist.
Rescue efforts have focused on the Roya Valley, where some 1,000 helicopter-backed firefighters and the army have resumed their search for survivors, while offering assistance to others whose homes were destroyed or inaccessible.
Storm Alex rushed to the west coast of France on Thursday, bringing winds and rain all over the country before heading to northern Italy.
“What we are going on is extraordinary,” said the prefect of the Maritime Alps, Bernard Gonzalez, after 60 centimetres of rain fell in 24 hours in the hardest-hit areas.
France has declared the region an herbal crisis zone.
Saint-Martin-Vesubie, a French village that houses 1400 north of Nice, cut off by the road.
An organization of scruffy tourists and citizens, adding a woman who had lost her home, piled up in the local village square to be taken to safety, an AFPTV journalist said after achieving the walk.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex inspected the wounded man via a helicopter on Saturday and said he had activated his emergency plan to handle herbal disasters.
He feared that the number of people missing after dozens of cars, as well as several houses, were razed in apocalyptic scenes.
The local government hosted two hundred other people overnight, while food and thousands of water bottles were taken to remote villages isolated by storms.
-‘Helicopter procession’-
Gonzalez called on the families of those in need to lose hope.
“Just because their loved ones couldn’t get in touch doesn’t mean they were trapped in the storm,” he said.
Many landlines and some cell phone facilities have been interrupted, and some satellite phones in some villages can talk to emergency facilities.
Despite the rain forecast, rescue efforts were expected to continue on Sunday, Gonzalez said.
“The helicopter procession will continue the day,” he said.
The other two people who died in Italy on Saturday were a volunteer firefighter in a rescue operation in the Aosta Valley and a guy whose car was dragged into the Sesia River further east.
The presidents of the Italian regions of Piedmont and Liguria signed a joint letter calling for a declaration of state of emergency with several isolated villages.
“The stage is very serious. It’s like 1994,” when 70 other people died after the flooding of the Po and Tarano rivers, Piedmont President Alberto Cirio told La Stampa newspaper.
“The 630mm water fell in 24 hours – unprecedented in such a short time since 1954. “
Cirio added that Italy is already suffering to cope with the effects of coronavirus, which has killed some 36,000 more people and disrupted the economy in the past six months.
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