The French and Italian rescue intensified its search efforts on Sunday after floods isolated several villages in mountainous border areas, causing heavy damage and killing 4 people.
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.
Another eight people are still missing in France Photo: AFP / NICOLAS TUCAT
In Breil-sur-Roya, a French village near the Italian border, the houses have been buried in dust and the overturned cars are trapped on the riverbed.
Rescue efforts have focused on the Roya Valley, where some 1,000 firefighters, supported by helicopters and the army, have resumed their search for survivors and helped 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.
A man from the Italian region of Piedmont is tracking the outdoor damage of his assets after a landslide caused by a brutal climate Photo: AFP / Vincenzo PINTO
“What we are going on is extraordinary,” said Bernard Gonzalez, prefect of the Maritime Alps, after 60 centimetres of rain fell in 24 hours in the hardest-hit areas.
Italy showed that two other people died on Saturday, a volunteer firefighter in a rescue operation and a guy whose car exploded.
A police station destroyed by floods in Saint-Martin-Vesubie, southeastern France Photo: AFP / Valery HACHE
France also announced two deaths. The first discovery was a shepherd whose body had been pulled from a river near the border. Firefighters later announced that a man had been discovered dead in his car in the southeastern village of Saint-Martin-Vesubie.
France has declared the region an herbal crisis zone.
Saint-Martin-Vesubie, a village of 1,400 inhabitants north of Nice, was completely isolated by the storm.
The ”helicopter procession” will continue all day Sunday Photo: AFP / NICOLAS TUCAT
An organization of scruffy tourists and citizens piled up in the village square to be flown to safety, an AFPTV journalist said after achieving the on foot.
“My three-story space is on the river,” said villager Sandra Dzidt, 62, who had to flee the floods dressed in her nightgown. “I have a little piece of wall and a door left. “
Across the region, emergency teams distributed food and air-transported thousands of water bottles to remote villages isolated by storms.
Cars and houses are buried in dust in Breil-sur-Roya, a French town near the Italian border, two days after torrential rains and floods hit the region, wreaking havoc Photo: AFPTV / Vincent-Xavier MORVAN
French Prime Minister Jean Castex inspected the wounded through a helicopter on Saturday and said he feared that the number of missing people could occur right after dozens of cars and several houses were razed in apocalyptic scenes.
Gonzalez called the families of those who were not going 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 installations were interrupted, and some satellite phones in some villages contacted 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 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.