Yahoo News British holidaymaker describes 'raging river' as flash floods hit French region of Ardeche
A British holidaymaker has described the “raging river” flowing through her campsite in southern France as flash flooding forced hundreds of people to flee.
Hundreds of people had to be evacuated after heavy rain struck the Gard, Ardeche and Drome areas, destroying tents and coursing through streets.
A 70-year-old German man helping supervise youngsters at a summer camp in Saint-Julien-de-Peyrolas in the Gard region is feared to have been swept away, along with his van, while around 1,600 people, many of them children, have reportedly been evacuated.
Holidaymaker Kathryn Alford was at Huttopia Camping Le Moulin in Saint Martin d’Ardeche with her husband and two children when severe storms hit on Thursday, bringing heavy rain and thunder and lightning.
The 44-year-old, from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, said: “I looked out at one point and realised that the water level seemed higher than just massive puddles. Our neighbour’s bottom step had disappeared and things were floating past.”
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Ms Alford took pictures of people in canoes as the campsite flooded, describing how they lost electricity in the mobile home they were staying in.
“I was quite frightened at first as I hate storms,” she said. Some people were concerned, but the campsite were good at reassuring us. I felt really sorry for the people whose tents were flooded.”
Ms Alford when they went down to the village, they were met by water pouring through streets like a “raging river”.
“When things had calmed down around four-ish we went down to the village and were met by the sight of water pouring down streets from hills into a completely changed raging river,” she said, referring to the Ardeche river.
Rachel Buchanan, from Oxford, said she endured a “frightening” drive through floodwater that had hit another site in the Ardeche region.
“Driving in our camper van was very frightening as the road by the river was completely under water and waterfalls had appeared from nowhere, crashing down the gorge,” she told the BBC.
The French weather service has issued orange and yellow alerts for parts of south-east France which will remain in place until 4pm on Friday.
UK Met Office meteorologist Marco Petagna said nearly 3in (7.6cm) of rain fell over the area in 24 hours, blaming the weather on a cold front that had hit the area of hot weather that has affected Europe recently.
