Central France has been dealing with major flooding‚ thats being called the worst in about four decades. The countrys prime minister said that rescue teams have been busy with roughly 2‚300 operations some of which saved lives.
Michel Barnier went to the crisis center in Paris and mentioned that nobody could remember such heavy rain. More than 1000 people had to leave their homes‚ but most of them were able to go back by 10/18/2024.
Barnier also talked good about a new warning system. It sent text messages to people in the affected areas telling them to change their plans and stay safe.
The weather agency‚ Meteo France said that some places in Ardeche and Lozere got about 700 millimeters (27.5 inches) of rain in just two days. Thats a lot of water!
The flooding messed up travel too. Trains between Lyon and Saint-Étienne stopped running on Thursday because the tracks were underwater. The train company SNCF said it would take a few days to fix things. A big road between these cities was also closed because of all the water.
Even though the worst seems to be over (the red alert was taken away on Friday morning) people in southwestern France are still being told to be careful. There might be more rain and floods coming their way
We havenʼt seen such violent rain in many peopleʼs memory