Floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning waterways into raging torrents that killed at least 10 people, authorities said Monday.
People had to be helicoptered from the roofs of their homes as overnight storms dumped the equivalent of several months of rain in a few hours.
Initially, 13 deaths were announced from the floods in the Aude region. But French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said after visiting damaged areas that the actual number of deaths was 10. Authorities said some victims had been counted twice.
In the town of Villegailhenc, resident Ines Siguet said floodwaters rose so quickly after the rains swept in from the Mediterranean that residents fled to rooftops.
“There’s nothing left. There’s just a hole,” the teenager, whose school was closed amid the destruction, told The Associated Press. “It was very violent.”
Some of those who died in the floods were swept away by the floodwaters, Aude prefect Alain Thirion said. In the town of Conques-sur-Orbiel, the river rose by more than six meters (20 feet), and floodwaters were in some cases too powerful for emergency services to get through, even on boats, he said.
The River Aude, which flows through Carcassonne, Trebes and other towns, reached levels unseen since floods in 1891.
Television images showed water coursing through towns and villages, damaging cars and piling them on top of each other.
1oos of workers have been deployed to rescue those affected by the floods.
-AP
