Une first victim of bad weather. Saturday June 4, the town hall of Rouen announced the death of a woman, stuck under her car. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced earlier that a woman was missing in Rouen (Seine-Maritime), while two-thirds of the country is on orange alert for thunderstorms. The victim was in his thirties, Agence France Presse learned from the office of the mayor of the city. “She was found, but she died,” said the same source.
Earlier, a hailstorm that passed through the Landes and Gers on Friday severely affected part of the Armagnac vineyard, where the vine was “chopped” and “ransacked” by hailstones of several centimeters and by the wind. , winegrowers and local officials told Agence France Presse on Saturday June 4. These two departments are part of the 65 placed from Saturday 4:00 p.m. until Sunday morning in orange vigilance for thunderstorms, with a new risk of large hail.
“This corridor of hail followed the entire Lando-Gers border and it is estimated that between 4 and 5,000 hectares of vines were affected, and several tens of thousands of hectares of crops were affected in the Gers,” said the President of the Departmental Chamber of Agriculture Bernard Malabirade. According to him, three centimeter hailstones caused significant damage in the west of this department.
“In Montreal-du Gers, we had hailstones bigger than a golf ball! “Said the director of the Armagnac interprofession Olivier Goujon, citing affected wine properties in Betbézer-d’Armagnac (Landes), Castelnau-d’Auzan-Labarrère and Fourcès (Gers). “There was indeed a disaster but it is too early to draw up an overall assessment”, he assured.
READ ALSOWeather: 65 departments placed on orange alert for thunderstorms
The 2023 harvest already threatened?
In Frêche (Landes), 25 km from Mont-de-Marsan, winegrower Nelly Lacave has found her 8.5 hectares of “chopped” vines. “It’s an apocalyptic scene,” she told an AFP correspondent. “In the vineyards, there is nothing left, the roof of our agricultural building is a giant Swiss cheese and in the house, windows have broken. My father, who is almost 70 years old, has never seen that”. “With the frost (at the start of spring), we already had 50% losses. After the hail, we have 100% of it,” added Nelly Lacave, who also noted major damage to her dozens of hectares of sunflower and corn. According to her, even her 2023 harvest is in danger: “A vine injured as it is today, it will be very complicated to prune it this winter and to have a decent harvest next year” .
A speech also supported by the president of the Landes Chamber of Agriculture, Marie-Hélène Cazaubon, according to which this damage, on “still tender vegetation”, “can impact the vineyard for one or two years” and will ” require a huge job of cleaning and pruning, to save what can still be saved”.
In Labastide-d’Armagnac (Landes), the mayor of the commune Alain Gaube thinks he has “lost between 70 and 90% of the vines”. “On the ground, there is a large part of leaves and grapes. The grapes that are left (on the vine) are already brown, they are dead,” he noted. According to an AFP correspondent, the roads in the area are strewn with leaves and branches and some broken trees. The Landes firefighters carried out 78 interventions in 28 municipalities in connection with the meteorological episode and up to 4,500 homes were deprived of electricity, according to the prefecture. No injuries are reported.
READ ALSOThe oenologists make “Le Point”: what is the impact of global warming on the vine and the wine?
Canceled concerts in Paris
In the Paris region, the “We Love Greeen” festival had to cancel all the concerts scheduled for this Saturday. “Due to heavy rain and thunderstorms, we have to cancel the festival tonight. Head calmly to the exit,” reads a tweet from the organization. “We will meet tomorrow (note, Sunday)”, add the organizers. About 40,000 people have been asked to leave, according to information from the Parisian.
“The conditions are not pleasant either for the public or for the artists,” a speaker on stage announced earlier, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. The environmentally conscious festival reopened its doors Thursday at the Bois de Vincennes, after two editions canceled due to health crisis (2020 and 2021). Thursday’s opening night was marked by a concert by Gorillaz, one of Briton Damon Albarn’s bands.
The Versailles of Phoenix and the rapper SCH were scheduled for Saturday. The other headliners of the event are Angèle, PNL, Juliette Armanet, expected on Sunday. We Love Green had welcomed 80,000 people in total in 2019 during its last edition.
Due to heavy rain and thunderstorms, we have to cancel the festival tonight. Calmly walk towards the exit.
See you tomorrow �� pic.twitter.com/HZiV9cbVln
— WE LOVE GREEN (@WeLoveGreen) June 4, 2022
30,000 scouts sheltered
The 30,000 unit scouts of France gathered on the National Estate of Chambord (Loir-et-Cher) on the occasion of the Pentecost weekend were sheltered from the violent storms, including a third inside the castle itself, organizers said. The Loir-et-Cher department is one of the 65 departments placed on orange “storm” vigilance by Météo France from Saturday June 4, 4:00 p.m., until Sunday morning.
“The storm passed around 4:30 p.m. It lasted a few minutes, but it was relatively strong and a gust of wind knocked down the tents of the Cubs, which we are in the process of reassembling, ”explained to Agence France Presse Damien Tardy, in charge of press relations at the movement. “Ten thousand young people, aged 8 to 12, were sheltered in the castle in cooperation with the prefecture,” he added. “The oldest, who are up to 25 years old, have been sheltered in the forest, on a sloping plain. They are in tents under ponchos, and were singing when I went to see them, as the scouts do even in the event of difficulties”, specified Damien Tardy, adding that it was about a “difficult moment” but “pretty well managed”.
Questioned by AFP, the director of the National Domain of Chambord Jean d’Haussonville specified that the shelter had “passed in calm and good humor thanks to the fallback plan planned by the prefecture”. The castle was closed to the public from 3:30 p.m. in anticipation of the storm. The idea was to welcome the youngest in the castle as a priority, i.e. around 10,000 people. The older ones stayed in the buses sheltered from lightning and hail. We are expecting a second storm around 7:30 p.m., “he explained, adding that there had been damage, such as” torn tents, falling trees and water infiltration in the castle “.