Very strong winds have caused extensive damage in the night from Wednesday to Thursday in Haute-Loire, near Yssingeaux, where the roofs, trees and electrical son were torn.
Haute-Loire is part of the departments placed in orange alert Wednesday, August 30 because of the risk of violent storms. Around 2.30am, about thirty houses had their roofs blown partially or totally in the villages of Saint-Jeures and Araules according to firefighters. No injuries were reported. “It’s kind of gale, storm, very short but intense about twenty minutes. One can think of a type of tornado phenomenon”, according to Captain Stéphane Pons, head of the county fire and rescue service of Haute-Loire.
Meteo France said that the gusts that accompanied a storm over a 15 km radius have exceeded 100 km/h. “To see if there is a tornado, you should see the field if corn fields lie in both directions by opposing winds, for example” , says one.
Some hamlets were temporarily inaccessible and had no electricity. Everything should be back to normal by Thursday afternoon. “It did not last long but there was a terrible noise” , told Mireille Faure, mayor of Araules, which has 600 inhabitants. “There is a shed where he remains only the metal structure” .
Sixty firefighters were mobilized again Thursday morning after many interventions in the night. Haute-Loire departments and 14 other Central East were placed in orange alert by Météo France due to a risk of thunderstorms in the night from Wednesday to Thursday. The alert was lifted Thursday morning for the last question.
