Bad weather in the Gard: a large-scale system is deployed to find six missing people

Ce dimanche matin, le point presse en préfecture en présence des gendarmes, pompiers. C. S.

This Sunday, the Gard prefecture took stock of the bad weather. Since Saturday March 9, Gard has been on orange alert for flood risks. Six people, including two children aged 4 and 13, are actively sought by firefighters and police.

Following bad weather, the evening and then the night from Saturday March 9 to Sunday March 10 were nightmarish in the Gard.

Gagnières: a missing sixty-year-old

In the town of Gagnières, a 4×4 vehicle was swept away by flood waters near a submersible bridge.

According to the first elements, the 62-year-old driver would have advanced on this infrastructure despite the signs prohibiting crossing, the closure of the road to traffic and the verbal alerts that he would have given to the mayor as well as a municipal police officer.

As was indicated this Sunday, March 10, early in the morning, during a press briefing at the prefecture, the passenger of the car managed to escape, climb onto the roof then cling to the branches of a tree, while the car was carried away by a phenomenon described as torrential.

"The firefighters were able to rescue this man two hours later. At the risk of their lives, Frédéric Loiseau, secretary general of the Gard prefecture, insisted in particular during a first update on the situation. This Sunday, March 10, at 10 a.m., the 4×4 vehicle and its driver were still actively sought by a group of underwater rescuers, 14 firefighters and a drone. A device that was to be ramped up during the day.

Dions: a man and two children swept away by the flood of the Gardon

During the night from Saturday to Sunday, in Dions, a new vehicle engaged there also on a submersible bridge (on the RD 22) was reported to CODIS. According to initial information, 4 people were in this vehicle, including 2 children aged 4 and 13. The mother was rescued by firefighters while the vehicle was swept away before her eyes. She is currently being treated at the Nîmes University Hospital.

During the night, 32 firefighters, including 20 underwater rescuers as well as two drones and a helicopter, were mobilized to try in vain to find the three missing. Uninterrupted, the father's search family and two children have intensified since daybreak.  

In Goudargues, two Belgian women wanted

At 5:10 a.m. this Sunday morning, two women aged 47 and 50, of Belgian nationality, reported to Codis as being blocked by water in their vehicle.

Geolocated on the RD33, they were also on a submersible bridge when communication was suddenly interrupted.

These two women would have a second home in the town of Goudargues and were obviously going to Spain when, according to the first elements, they too were taken away by torrential waters.

 28 firefighters, including 10 underwater rescuers from Hérault, are particularly mobilized to try to find them.

In total, during this dark night, 176 interventions involving 250 firefighters and 50 gendarmes, drones and dog crews, as well as 4 helicopters, were recorded throughout the Gard department. From 7 a.m., 70 additional gendarmes were mobilized.

At 10 a.m. on Sunday March 10, 6 people including two children were missing and actively sought in three separate areas. Significant reinforcements of firefighters from Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône were expected ? As well as two helicopters from Lyon and Montpellier.

A provisional assessment likely to change in the coming hours.

The prefecture once again requests the greatest caution from citizens, particularly motorists, specifying that from 20 cm of flowing water, the driver loses control of his vehicle.