Four deaths in France due to severe summer storms

[Stormsfury]

Four dead in France as storms break summer heat wave
Wed Jul 16, 9:31 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) - Four people, including two foreign tourists, were killed and nine others severely hurt as violent storms lashed southern and western France, interrupting a blistering heat wave.

A 40-year-old Dutchman and a 11-year-old German girl died late Tuesday after being hit by falling trees at a campsite in the town of Biscarrosse, in the Landes department on the southwestern Atlantic coast.

In the neighboring department of Pyrenees-Atlantiques, a 17-year-old boy was killed when he lost control of his scooter during a ferocious hail storm and hit an oncoming vehicle. His 14-year-old passenger was in serious condition in hospital.

Further north at a campsite near Saumur in the department of Maine-et-Loire, a man died of a heart attack brought on by the storms. Several others were injured by falling trees at the campsite, and seven people were hurt when a nearby barn was blown down.

A total of 70 people were injured in the storms, nine of them seriously, according to the emergency services. More than 300,000 homes lost electricity, though power had been restored to around half of them by early Wednesday.

The state-owned power company EDF said they expected to restore all downed power lines before the end of the day on Wednesday.

Meteorologists said that in some areas winds were as violent as during the storms which ravaged the country in December 1999, destroying vast areas of woodland and killing 92 people.

The gales were moving to the north and were expected in Brittany and the Loire valley sometime on Wednesday. Alert bulletins were issued in these areas, as well in the southern Gard department.

In the southwestern city of Bordeaux, where winds reached 150 kilometers (94 miles) an hour, roofs were damaged and hundreds of trees blown over, while in the wine-growing areas of Medoc, two people were struck by lightning.

In Biscarrosse alone, more than 3,500 holidaymakers were evacuated and lodged overnight in municipal halls and schools. Hundreds of firefighters and emergency workers rushed to the scene to provide assistance to those in need.

Many of the shaken campers said Wednesday they would be spending the rest of their vacations elsewhere.

Rail traffic was disrupted early Wednesday across southwestern France as a result of trees on the track and damaged power lines, but was back to near-normal by midday in most areas.

The storms spelled the end of a heat wave which has seen temperatures reach 40 degrees Centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and prompted widespread concerns about crop failure and forest fires.

Experts warned that even though spectacular amounts of water may fall in summer deluges such as these, they have little impact unless the rain is sustained over a long period.