The state of natural disaster has been recognized for 16 municipalities in Hérault, a department affected in mid-September by significant rainfall during the first “Mediterranean episode” of the season in this region of southern France, announced Wednesday 4 October the department prefecture. Dated September 25, the ministerial decree recognizing the state of natural disaster due to the phenomenon of “floods and mudslides” was published Wednesday in the Official Journal, according to the prefecture.
The municipalities concerned are Avène, Bédarieux, Lauroux, Causse-de-la-Selle, Ceilhes-et-Rocozels, Joncels, La Tour-sur-Orb, Le Bousquet-d’Orb, Les Rives, Les Plans, Lunas, Romiguières, Roqueredonde, Saint-Martin-de-Londres, Saint-Privat and Viols-en-Laval. Victims now have “a period of thirty days to report their claims to their insurance company, with a view to obtaining compensation for the damage suffered,” said the prefecture.
Placed on “red alert” for rain and floods on Saturday September 16, Hérault had suffered very significant amounts of precipitation, leading to the closure of a railway line and the cutting of several roads. This episode notably caused flooding in the town of Lunas, in the north of the department, where the flood of the Orb swept away “several cars” and flooded “several houses in a hamlet located on the edge of the river”, without causing any casualties, according to firefighters.
The “Mediterranean episodes”, known as “Cévennes”, synonymous with significant quantities of rain accompanied by thunderstorms, are usual at the end of summer and autumn in the south of France and are sometimes the cause of deadly floods.
