The heat wave can also produce dramatic mountain phenomena. Violent thunderstorms following the strong heat wave caused the flood on Monday, unprecedented in seventy years, of a torrent of the Alpine Valley of Maurienne.
It caused significant damage to Modane and its surroundings on the border with Italy, the prefecture of Savoy announced. No victim is to be deplored, specifies his press release.
Violent mountain thunderstorms
At the end of the afternoon, after “important thunderstorms following the hot weather in recent days”, “Le Torrent du Charmaix”, a river gaining its source in the high mountains to throw itself into the arc, “entered flood […] Providing localized floods, ”explained the prefecture in the evening.
“This is the most important flood in 70 years,” said the press release. The Charmaix frequently swells according to mountain thunderstorms.
Interrupted rail traffic
Water and mud have invaded streets of Modane and the village bordering stoves, up to 50 centimeters high in certain areas. They interrupted in particular rail traffic between France and Italy “in both directions until further notice”, according to this text.
Departmental roads have also been cut in Modane and its surroundings, an important city in road transit between the two countries.
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“Fifteen people were safe in the village hall of Fourneaux and Modane by firefighters, adds the prefecture which speaks of around fifty flooded cellars. The stove school was partially flooded.
About twenty kilometers further south, in the Hautes-Alpes near the Italian border, the firefighters reported large thunderstorms that overflowed watercourses, in particular the Durance. In the town of La Vachette, the flood river cut the national road 94, flooded seven houses and part of the campsite of this small town, without triggering evacuation.
