Following the passing of the Kirk Depression, the decline continued on Saturday 12 October in most flood-affected areas. According to Météo-France, only two departments remain on orange alert for flooding: Eure-et-Loir and Loir-et-Cher. Seine and Marne, which on Friday afternoon was still on red alert after the flooding caused by the Grand Morin, a tributary of the Marne, was lowered to orange alert early in the morning and then to yellow alert in the bulletin published in 10 hours .
“General trend towards recession and propagation of floods downstream in all sectors”writes Météo-France, which only reports one “major flooding in the Loir Vendômois (Loir-et-Cher) and in the Eure upstream (Eure-et-Loir)”. SATURDAY, ” The meteorological situation is relatively calm in the flooded basins. The rains expected for Saturday are light in the north of the country and should not counteract the decreasing trend upstream of the rivers. Under these conditions, the current floods continue their slow propagation downstream.”summarized the government organization Vigicrues in its six o’clock bulletin.
In Eure-et-Loir, almost half of the municipalities were affected by flooding, a consequence of the intense rainfall caused by the Kirk depression this week. According to a statement from the departmental prefecture on Saturday morning, since the start of the bad weather, 926 rescue operations have been carried out and 304 people have been rescued. “evacuated and taken to a safe place”.
The wettest September in twenty-five years
The two most affected municipalities continue to be Bonneval and Cloyes-les-Trois-Rivières, two towns located in the Loir that have abandoned their bed to invade streets and homes. The level of the Loir had dropped significantly in Bonneval on Saturday morning, according to data from Vigicrues, while in Cloyes, further down, it stood at 1.35 meters around 10 a.m., compared to 1.85 m in the peak measured on Friday night.
In neighboring Loir-et-Cher, the decline has not yet begun in Vendôme, where the hospital and a nursing home were evacuated as a preventive measure on Friday. According to Vigicrues’ forecasts, the peak would be reached in the early hours of Saturday afternoon, although at a lower level than the January 1995 flood.
At the end of the month of September, the wettest in twenty-five years, the average annual rainfall has already been exceeded in almost all parts of mainland France.
