France Braced for "Floods Of Century"
December 3, 2003
LYON, France (Reuters) - Torrential rain drenching parts of southeastern France threaten to worsen flash floods that have cost at least three lives and forced about 4,000 people to evacuate their homes.
Flooding along the Rhone River from Lyon to Marseille was due to hit its peak during the day, while winds of up to 150 kph were expected to lash the Mediterranean coast, officials said.
Heavy rain moving west also set off flood alerts reaching as far as the Pyranees Mountains.
"Today we're faced with what could be the floods of the century," government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told Europe 1 radio. "We have to mobilise all our resources."
Several highways and many secondary roads were cut off and train services from Lyon westwards were stopped by the worst flooding seen in the region in decades.
Environment Minister Rosaline Bachelot was due to visit Marseille on Wednesday. She said on Tuesday 4,000 firefighters, 100 soldiers and eight helicopters had been mobilised.
On Tuesday, a 45-year-old man was found dead after he was swept away by floodwater in a Marseille suburb. A second person in the Mediterranean port city has been missing since Monday.
The body of a woman was found in the River Meyne in nearby Orange, while a man drowned in the Ardeche village of Arlebosc. A 53-year-old woman was missing in the Loire valley, thought to have fallen off a bridge into the swollen river below.
A spokeswoman for the government nuclear safety authority ASN said two reactors were shut early on Tuesday as a precaution after the heavy rains. She said the restarting of the reactors would depend on river levels.
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