The electrical activity was very intense, totaling around 50,000 lightning strikes in 24 hours, reports Météo-France.
The toll is heavy after these bad weather: a woman in her thirties died trapped under a car after being swept away by the waters in Rouen, where certain streets were transformed into torrents by the violence of the storms.
A 13-year-old boy in critical condition in Indre-et-Loire
During a press briefing this Sunday morning, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin indicated that this stormy episode of exceptional magnitude due to the number of departments concerned had also injured 15 people, two of whom were seriously affected. Of the two seriously injured, a 13-year-old boy, victim of an accident on the public highway in Indre-et-Loire due to the storm, is currently hospitalized in critical condition.
According to the first elements of the investigation, the victim would have “a priori” crossed the road outside a protected passage and was knocked down by a motorist who did not see him because of the heavy rains, has the prosecutor of Tours Gregoire Dulin.
15,000 homes are still without electricity this Sunday morning also underlined the minister.
In Yonne, near Avallon, the gusts of wind exceeded 100 km / h and more than 30 mm of water fell in 12 minutes in Dornes, in the south of Nièvre, according to Météo-France. More than .500 lightning strikes were recorded in the Loire region, still notes Météo-France.
In Landes and Gers, hailstones of several centimeters fell on part of the Armagnac vineyard. “In Montreal-du-Gers, we had hailstones bigger than a golf ball! », according to the director of the Armagnac interprofession, Olivier Goujon. If no injuries are to be deplored in the Landes, 4,500 homes have been deprived of electricity.
In Vincennes, east of Paristhe “We love green” music festival was canceled and the 40,000 festival-goers were evacuated.
On the National Estate of Chambord (Loir-et-Cher)30,000 unit scouts from France gathered for the Pentecost weekend had to be sheltered, a third of them inside the castle itself.
Spectacular picture in Nanteuil-les-Meaux, in Seine-et-Marne, where the roof of a house was struck by lightning causing a fire. Fortunately the owners were not present at the time of impact.
The government “there for the territories affected
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne promised in the evening that the government would be “there for the affected territories”, turning to the “victims of the bad weather which hits the whole country and to the rescue teams who carried out hundreds of interventions” .