No respite. Only forty-eight hours after the passage of Eunice, a deadly storm in Europe, it is Franklin’s turn to do damage in the north of France. Regional trains were again disrupted on Monday and 16,000 homes remained without electricity, some of them since Friday, say SNCF and Enedis.
Storm Franklin caused new strong winds on Sunday evening, reaching 120 km / h in the interior and 140 km / h on the coast, according to Météo France, after winds of a force comparable to storm Eunice on Friday. They caused further damage, particularly to the electricity network and the railways. Eunice had injured at least six seriously in France, paralyzed transport and damaged many buildings, including schools, some of which could not reopen on Monday morning.
At 9 a.m. on Monday, 16,000 homes remained without power, especially around Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais, as well as in the Lille region. The electricity distribution network manager Enedis announced that it had mobilized 1,000 agents “with priority given to customers already struck by Eunice” Friday. He hopes to succeed “resupply almost all homes without electricity by the end of the day”, despite a new gale announced for Monday.
Uprooted trees in Lille
Firefighters intervened nearly 300 times in Pas-de-Calais overnight from Sunday to Monday, most of the time for falling materials and electrical cables. The first TERs circulated without passengers on Monday morning, some carrying loggers to clear the tracks obstructed by trees. The main lines were functional again at 10 a.m., SNCF said, adding that only a few lines with less traffic were still being checked.
Storm Franklin once again uprooted towering trees in Lille on Sunday evening. According to the voice of the North, a motorist narrowly escaped a serious accident. The firefighters of the Nord, Pas-de-Calais and the Somme, departments placed in orange vigilance, did not deplore any new injuries during the night from Monday to Sunday.
In the Channel, placed in yellow vigilance, a couple of septuagenarians died drowned Sunday evening in their car which was carried away by the waves on a submersible road at high tide, in Bricqueville-sur-Mer (Manche). The two occupants were extracted from their car by the divers and then brought back to shore by the lifeboat. They were declared dead by the SMUR doctor. Their remains, extracted by the divers, were brought ashore by the lifeboat. An investigation will now have to determine the circumstances of this tragedy.