RENNES – France placed swaths of Brittany in the west of the country on red weather alert on Monday as a violent storm brought flood levels not seen in decades.
The “Herminia” depression has unleashed downpours especially in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, with administrative center Rennes experiencing its worst flooding in 40 years.
Weather service Meteo France warned that the situation could get worse.
Eight other French departments were on orange weather alert for flooding, flash floods or, in the case of the French Alps, avalanches.
“Unfortunately we haven’t seen the worst of the flooding,” the mayor of Rennes, Nathalie Appere, said late Sunday.
“Water levels will not begin to subside slowly until Wednesday.”
The city over the weekend evacuated some 400 residents living in streets near the city’s Saint-Martin canal, and turned gyms into temporary shelters.
The rising water lifted house-boats on the canal to the same level as cars parked in the street. Brittany’s western-most area Finistere was on orange flash flood alert on Monday, a level that was to be widened to the entire west coast on Tuesday, Meteo France said.
Herminia, which brought on the heavy weather over western France, follows Storm Eowyn which hit Ireland and the United Kingdom before the weekend.
AN-AFP, Jan 27, 2025
