A 50-year-old who bathed on the island of Ouessant (Finistère) despite an atmospheric depression combined with high tides died on Wednesday August 2.
While the northwest facade of Brittany was placed on orange alert for “waves-submersion” due to this depression, named Patricia, the alert was given at 5:50 p.m. by a witness who reported three bathers in difficulty , informed the maritime prefecture of the Atlantic to Agence France-Presse (AFP), confirming information from the Telegram. According to the newspaper, it was a mother and her two sons, regulars in Ouessant where they have a family home.
Two helicopters were mobilized but it was the island’s firefighters and volunteers from the National Sea Rescue Society (SNSM) who rescued the three bathers on Corz beach. Two of them were “unharmed” but the 57-year-old woman was in cardiorespiratory arrest and could not be revived despite the intervention of a maritime SMUR team which arrived on the island by helicopter.
According to the maritime prefecture of the Atlantic, the orange alert “waves-submersion” was in effect at the time of the events on the coast of Finistère. In Ouessant, the wind was force 7 (50 to 60 km / h approximately) with waves of 6 to 9 meters.
Vital prognosis committed for a young boy
In Charente-Maritime, a 10-year-old child was seriously injured on Wednesday afternoon by a falling tree in Montpellier-de-Médillan, between Saintes and Royan, firefighters said. Suffering from a head trauma, he was airlifted to the University Hospital of Poitiers with a vital prognosis.
“On the circumstances of the uprooting of the tree, we cannot yet say whether it was the wind or the fragility of the tree”, however, told AFP a spokesperson for the Departmental Fire and rescue (SDIS) of Charente-Maritime.
The gusts recorded at 60 km/h in the area, located on the fringes of the Patricia depression, correspond to a “common wind” on the Atlantic coast and did not cause any particular damage elsewhere, he added. .
