Storm Aurora: orange alert lifted, but train traffic still difficult and 250,000 homes without electricity – archyworldys

The gale that has swept across northern France since Wednesday afternoon was progressing eastward on Thursday, October 21, gradually losing intensity. Météo-France lifted the orange vigilance to the violent wind at the end of the morning which still concerned twelve departments.

The storm, dubbed “Aurora”, focused Thursday morning on Hauts-de-France, the Paris region and the east of the country. Some 250,000 homes are deprived of electricity in the north of France, mainly in Normandy, announced the operator of the electricity distribution network Enedis in a press release. Around 3,000 technicians were sent to the field, and the EDF subsidiary’s rapid intervention force was deployed.

Disrupted transport

A “Hundred incidents” have also been reported on railway lines, “With trees, branches and various objects (a trampoline, tarpaulins, sheets, etc.) which have flown off and have fallen on the tracks or on the catenaries”, according to SNCF.

Traffic remained difficult in Normandy, Hauts-de-France, Ile-de-France and Grand-Est, SNCF said in mid-morning. TGV traffic remained normal, however.

In Ile-de-France, traffic was very disrupted on all lines, in particular the RER C, D, E and lines leaving or going to Saint-Lazare station. Traffic was to resume gradually from 10 a.m. on most of the interrupted lines, while remaining intermittent, or even suspended, on certain sections of the RER C.

The RATP has indicated that traffic on the RER A, the busiest line in Europe, was also complicated due to a break in the interconnection at Nanterre-Préfecture.

“Find out about the trains that run before going to the station, and stay careful”, wrote the Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, in a tweet.

Due to strong gusts of wind, falling trees disrupt train traffic in Ile-de-France, Norma… https://t.co/T7ncFNtI0W

– Djebbari_JB (@ Jean-Baptiste Djebbari)

During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, a tree fell on the track of the railway line between Paris and Granville, in the Channel. A hundred passengers were taken care of by the firefighters and the city of Argentan, in connection with the SNCF, announced the prefecture of Orne Thursday morning on Twitter.

In Normandy, traffic was interrupted until noon on lines departing from Paris – Saint-Lazare to Le Havre, Trouville-Deauville station and Caen and had to “Resume very gradually on certain lines from 10 am”, according to the SNCF, which advised its customers to postpone their trips ” as much as possible “.

In Brittany, several lines were also cut by bad weather, in particular between Rennes and Saint-Malo or even Quimper and Brest. In Plozévet, in Finistère, a house under construction collapsed during the passage of the storm, noted a photographer from Agence France-Presse.

Gusts of over 170 km / h at Fécamp

The trees, most of which still have their leaves, were easily uprooted by this storm, the first of the season, Météo-France said in a bulletin. Gusts of 175 km / h were measured at Fécamp (Seine-Maritime), 143 km / h at Granville (Manche), 134 km / h on the island of Groix (Morbihan), and 109 km / h at the station Paris-Montsouris weather forecast. The weather conditions were still disturbed in the east of France with local showers and a wind blowing up to 170 km / h on the ridges of the Vosges.

In Lorraine, 20,000 customers were deprived of electricity Thursday morning, against 4,000 in Alsace and more than 6,000 in the historic region of Franche-Comté.

The Aurora depression continues to move east and now concerns Germany, according to Météo-France.

The World with AFP

Disrupted transport

Gusts of over 170 km / h at Fécamp

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