Dordogne reports little damage during ‘national disaster’ storms

Dordogne reports little damage during ‘national disaster’ storms

March 1st, 2010 |

The Dordogne appears to have escaped the violent storms that struck France over the weekend with remarkably little damage, with the department wide crisis warning being cleared at 1600 yesterday.

Earlier this morning, President Nicolas Sarkozy declared a national disaster after the storms caused massive destruction in other areas of France, particularly across the Atlantic coast. Many buildings and roads across the country have been damaged by the force of the storm, named Xynthia.

Xynthia had wind speeds of an estimated 140km/h when it swept across the west of France, before sweeping into Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

As the major threat was to the French coastline – which has been hit badly by the storm – five departments along the coast were placed on red warning but many of the other 90 departments in the country were placed on high alert with an orange warning.

The Dordogne was among those departments but appears to have escaped damage almost entirely, even compared with other inland areas. During the storm, Weather France Bergerac – which lost power during the storm – recorded wind speeds of 105km/h near Thiviers, 95km/h near Perigueux and 92km/h near Bergerac.

According to SudOuest.com there has been no major damage to any location in the department, though there are still “trees and branches on the pavement…overturned garbage cans or broken signs” and minor damage to roof tiles across the Dordogne-Perigord region.

Speaking yesterday morning, the sub-preft of Bergerac, Bernard Pouget, said that though “the wind blew hard… we found no significant consequences” and there is “No particular risk of flooding…given the lack of rainfall during the storm.”

Damage in the Dordogne appears to have been limited to minor power cuts and disruptions to phone lines, caused by fallen trees. Some houses have also been damaged but no casualties have been reported and the roads have been cleared throughout the department, thanks to the 76 operations by local firefighters over the weekend.