2023-06-22 23:09:00
A man died this Thursday, June 22 in Gaillard in Haute-Savoie, struck down during the violent storms which fell on the Alps.
By VD with AFP A 34-year-old man was struck dead this Thursday, June 22 at the end of the afternoon. (Illustrative photo). © SEBASTIEN LAPEYRERE / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP Published on 06/22/2023 at 11:09 p.m.
A man in his fifties died Thursday afternoon struck down by lightning in Gaillard, Haute-Savoie, during the violent storms which fell during the day on the department, we learned from the firefighters. The drama took place shortly after 5 p.m. in a parking lot in this town of 11,500 inhabitants located south-west of Annemasse, they said, confirming information from France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
“The victim was declared dead on the spot despite the rapid intervention of first aid,” the same source explained. Ten people who witnessed the lightning strike were taken care of by the department’s medico-psychological emergency unit, attached to the Samu. Météo France had placed eleven departments on orange thunderstorm vigilance on Thursday morning, then reduced this figure to seven (Ain, Ardennes, Drôme, Isère, Rhône, Savoie and Haute-Savoie) in the middle of the afternoon.
Nearly 160 interventions
“These storms, mobile, were associated with high rainfall intensities, punctually large hail and violent gusts of wind often exceeding 100 km / h. We thus noted 106 km / h in Annecy, 112 km / h in Saint-Geoirs, 126 km / h in Chambéry. Very high rainfall intensities were recorded, up to 30 mm in less than 15 minutes,” said Météo-France in a press release.
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The Haute-Savoie firefighters also indicated in a press release that nearly 160 interventions were recorded around 7 p.m., “mainly for exhaustion (water pumping), falling trees or tiles”. They added that the situation was in the early evening in the process of stabilization but “that trees and roofs” (could) be “weakened”, before inviting the population “to be very careful”.
Orange storm vigilance was lifted by Météo France at the end of the day, while 52 departments remained on yellow vigilance until midnight for thunderstorms, rain-flooding and/or flooding. Corsica, the Mediterranean region and the entire north-west of the country are essentially excluded from this.
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