Thunderstorms: 136,000 Households Still Without Electricity in Nouvelle-Aquitaine

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136,000 households without electricity in Nouvelle Aquitaine due to thunderstorms

Nouvelle-Aquitaine is badly hit after successive thunderstorms. In Dordorgne, Lot-et-Garonne or Gironde, thousands of homes are without electricity.

Some 136,000 homes were still without electricity Thursday morning in Nouvelle- Aquitaine, especially in the Dordogne , after heavy thunderstorms, said the manager of the electricity distribution network, Enedis.

“We still have no less than 95,000 customers cut in the Dordogne (75,000), Lot-et-Garonne (8,000), Gironde (12,000), Corrèze (26,000), Haute-Vienne (12,000) and Poitou-Charentes (3000), “Xavier Salon, director of communication at Enedis Aquitaine Nord , told AFP .

The Dordogne hard hit

“There is significant damage, thunderstorms have been exceptionally violent,” said Xavier Salon, stating that poles had been broken, mainly because of trees felled by the weather.

Enedis plans to make a mid-day point to assess the return to normal which was especially problematic in the Dordogne, where up to 110 000 households were deprived of electricity Wednesday.

Human reinforcements

Xavier Salon says:


“This department has experienced an exceptional phenomenon. There had not been this kind of storm for ten years (…) The diagnosis is still ongoing”

Human reinforcements

Human and material reinforcements were being transported Thursday morning, mainly to the Dordogne and neighboring Corrèze.

In Corrèze, a 64-year-old cyclist from Loire-Atlantique died of a “cardio-respiratory arrest” after being injured by the fall of a tree in a park in Objat, where he participated in a rally of bicycle tourism.

800 houses damaged in Charente

In Charente, also vigilant orange on Wednesday, violent hailstorms caused significant material damage. The winds blew to nearly 100 km / h, damaging 800 houses, especially in the village of Saint-Sornin where roofs and vehicles were pounded by hailstones. Several dozen victims were sheltered for the night in two gymnasiums opened by the relief.

On the rail side, traffic was mainly suspended south of Bordeaux and in the Dordogne due to falling trees on many lines. It resumed progressively Thursday morning with various delays and train deletions, according to the SNCF.

No train ran between Brive and Limoges because of cutting trees, and between Périgueux and Agen to check if the tracks were cleared.

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