Numerous evacuations took place in Indre-et-Loire and Vienne, due to the severe flooding of the rivers which has occurred since Saturday in the center-west of the country. A kayaker is still needed.

The alert was given on Saturday around 4 p.m. by several witnesses who saw the kayaker “in difficulty” from the town of Aixe-sur-Vienne (Haute-Vienne), 10 kilometers west of Limoges. “They judged from afar that he had difficulty controlling. It was from there that searches were launched over around ten kilometers, the secretary general of the Haute-Vienne prefecture, Laurent Monbrun, explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Like the day before, the searches carried out on Sunday “up to the border with Charente” by the gendarmerie, with a helicopter in support, yielded nothing, the prefecture said. They resumed Monday morning, in an area now in decline and without particular vigilance. The prefecture, however, reports the absence of “a report of a missing relative”.

Further north, Indre-et-Loire remains classified by Météo-France on red flood alert for Monday. Two new departments, Côte-d’Or and Yonne, were also placed on red alert at midday. This alert is activated because of a danger of “major flooding on Vienne-Tourangelle (Indre-et-Loire) and on Armançon (Côte-d’Or and Yonne)”, specifies Météo-France.

Vienna is only on yellow alert. The departments of Gironde, Dordogne, Charente, Charente-Maritime are placed on orange alert, as are Saône-et-Loire, Gard, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Alpes-de -Haute-Provence.

In Haute-Vienne, Vienne and Indre-et-Loire, the government has launched “the accelerated procedure for recognizing the state of natural disaster”, Mr. Darmanin announced on Sunday evening on X.

More than 560 people evacuated in Indre-et-Loire

In Indre-et-Loire, the Vienne began to recede at Chinon at midday. Across the department, 562 people have been evacuated since midday on Saturday, including 370 in Chinon, the prefecture indicated.

In Gard, the prefecture announced the closure to traffic of 17 submersible bridges and lookout crossings, as well as numerous municipal submersible bridges.

In mid-March, eight people died in bad weather linked to storm Monica which hit the south-east of France. Among them, six died in Gard, swept away while trying to cross swollen rivers by car, one in Hérault and one in Ardèche.