The body recovered in Ardèche on Wednesday is indeed that of a man who went missing in Saint-Martin-de-Valamas during the severe weather of the weekend, the Privas prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday March 14, bringing the death toll to seven of storm Monica in France.
“It is indeed the body of the person in charge of the hydroelectric power station,” who went missing on Saturday evening and was recovered on Wednesday by emergency services in Eyrieux, the public prosecutor of Privas, Cécile Deprade, told Agence France-Presse. “The autopsy, which will be carried out on Tuesday, will help determine the causes of death,” added the magistrate.
This septuagenarian was last seen on Saturday, when he left to check a micro power plant for which he was responsible. His body was spotted Tuesday by hunters and relatives.
Located in a steep place, downstream from the place of his disappearance, it initially remained inaccessible to emergency services. It required the reinforcement of the Valence river brigade, a high mountain helicopter and aquatic rescuers from the Ardèche firefighters to recover it.
His identification brings the death toll from violent weather over the weekend to seven deaths in the south-east of France. In Spain, three people were also swept away by sea waves linked to Storm Monica.
Gard firefighters and gendarmes continue on Thursday, for the 5th day in a row, the search along the Gardon, to find a 13-year-old teenager, swept away on Saturday evening by the flooded river with his 4-year-old sister and their father, who They were found dead.
The family was trying to drive across a submersible bridge in Dions, a village of 500 people north of Nîmes. Only the mother, aged 40, was able to be airlifted in conditions of rain and wind described as “dangerous” by the firefighters, before the car was swept away by the flood. The father’s body was found on Monday and that of the girl on Tuesday.