Exceptional bad weather, which occurred overnight from Friday to Saturday in Guadeloupe, led to the death of two people and the disappearance of a third. The two victims, two men including a 61-year-old, were found in their vehicle, said the prefecture, which communicated this updated report at the end of the day on Saturday. A third person, a 30-year-old young man according to local media, was also missing, and “The search for her remains futile at this stage”specify the services of the State.
In total, “80 firefighters were hired during the afternoon to assist the victims and carry out reconnaissance”according to the prefecture, which also specifies that the area of Pointe-à-Pitre, the hardest hit by bad weather, “tends to stabilize”. On Saturday evening, traffic was back to normal, although there were still a few “significant difficulties” in certain sectors, including a risk of landslides in the town of Gosier.
More than 300 mm of rain
The exceptional rainfall that affected Pointe-à-Pitre, Les Abymes and Le Gosier began in the middle of the night on Saturday at 1 a.m. (7 a.m. in mainland France). “The rainfall exceeded 300 mm, a phenomenon greater than that recorded during Hurricane Maria” in 2017, underlines the prefecture. In Gosier for example“the Leroux station is too recent for such comparisons, but it goes without saying that the 312.7 mm will remain exceptional”, according to Météo France. The island had been placed on red vigilance for heavy rain and thunderstorms at the end of the night by Météo France, which then switched it to orange vigilance with the calm.
These rains caused “a break in the electricity supply and difficulties in the distribution of water”, but also the flooding of the roads in Pointe-à-Pitre and the landslides in the Grands Fonds, in the center of Grande-Terre, indicates the same source, which asked Guadeloupeans not to travel to the region of Pointe-à-Pitre or go hiking in the mountains all day Saturday. As the flood began, many roads remained closed to traffic, including on main axes, forcing some motorists to turn around and drive in the opposite direction on expressways.