Seven Departments on Orange Alert, More than 60,000 Homes Without Power

General News Local News
Many households without Electricity after Strong Winds

Very strong gusts of wind swept Brittany and Normandy, including …

A difficult Easter Monday for more than 60,000 households located in Brittany and Normandy, suffering from blackouts, according to ERDF. There would be 35,000 Breton affected households, including 20,000 alone in Morbihan, according to figures provided by the operator. In this department where the wind blew up to 150 km/h at Belle-Ile, the prefecture has stated that there were 289 fire-fighter interventions during the night of Sunday to Monday, including 237 for falling trees on the roads.

Departments in Normandy were also affected by the high winds with 26,000 homes without electricity until 7am this morning, according to ERDF.

Météo France had placed north western departments (mainly in Brittany and Normandy and Hauts de France) of France orange alert “winds” and three others in western France in orange vigilance “wave submersion” .

Lots of rain in Brittany

In its update at 6am on its website , Météo France has announced the end of the alert  for “strong wind” for the four departments of Brittany (Côtes d’Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan) but has instead continued vigilance to Calvados, the Manche, the Eure, Seine-Maritime, Somme, Nord and Pas-de-Calais.  Maintaining Monday warning “wave-submersion warnings” concerns the departments of Finistère, Morbihan and Loire-Atlantique.

In the night from Sunday to Monday, there was a large amount of rainfall on the North west of France, including Brittany, the Morbihan and southern Côtes d’Armor with between 20 and 45 mm of rain falling. These rains now shift eastward decreasing. The winds continue to gust with speeds observed of 123 km/h in Pleyber-Christ (Finistère), 121 km/h in Livry (Calvados), 107 km/h in Caen, 106 km/h in Pontorson (Manche), 103 km/h in Ploumanac’h (Armor Coast) and Cap Gris-Nez (Pas-de-Calais).  The end of the warning should take place around midday on Monday.

Leave a Reply

Your e-mail address will not be published. Required fields are marked *