The streets of Cannes were flooded early on Monday morning, September 23, following a violent storm. Shocking videos on social media showed vehicles swept away by the current in the city centre, residents up to their hips in water and the Cannes station submerged.
On day X, the mayor of the city, David Lisnard, claims not to have received “without alert”. Their teams had to manage a situation that no one expected from 7 a.m. onwards. “It is not normal that there was no warning. We received the state alert an hour after the storm.The councillor lamented at the microphone of BFM-TV at 9:30 am, We are waiting for explanations. »
Despite 80 centimetres of water in some places, Lisnard said there was no “no injuries”only “Some people were evacuated from their car”. Shortly before ten in the morning, the “the situation returned to normal”.
26 mm in one hour
Météo France has put Cannes on yellow alert for “thunderstorms” and “rain floods” throughout the morning, as has the entire Alpes-Maritimes department. But there was no sign of such damage. In the past twenty-four hours, 38 mm have fallen, of which 26 mm between 7 and 8 am alone.
Safety measures have been taken. Many streets have been closed in the city centre and traffic on the A8 motorway between Cannes and Nice is severely disrupted. The town of Antibes has also been affected by flooding, although to a lesser extent.
Why is Cannes frequently hit by violent floods? The mayor gave two main reasons to BFM-TV: “There is the urbanization of the city, which dates mainly from the 19th century.my century “but also the “geographic configuration, because we collect all the runoff upstream”On 3 October 2015, this runoff caused the deaths of 20 people in the Alpes-Maritimes department, including 5 in Cannes.
