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More than 100 firefighters and police officers remained mobilized this Monday in Pomas, near Carcassonne, in the Aude department (southern France), following the passage of a tornado that caused at least 26 injuries and significant material damage, while several areas in the south and west of the country experienced intense storm activity.
According to the Aude Prefecture (government delegation), the injured were in "relative emergency" and five have been taken to hospitals, while fourteen urban search and rescue (USAR) specialists and a canine unit were participating in operations in Pomas, with other reinforcements on the way.
The Red Cross has also been deployed to assist affected people and accommodation centers have been set up for the night following the tornado that affected several towns between Carcassonne and Limoux, especially Pomas. Nearly 100 homes were impacted.
Several departmental roads were cut off by fallen trees or to facilitate emergency operations. In addition, about 2,800 households were without electricity in ten municipalities in the department.
Aude remained on orange alert (the second highest) for storms tonight, and the Prefecture asked the population to avoid affected areas, respect the instructions of emergency services, and consult only official sources.
About twenty departments were on alert on Monday due to storms, such as the rain and hail during the climb to the Col de Mont Louis, 16 kilometers from the finish line in Font Romeu, the first high-altitude finish of the 2026 Vuelta a España, which forced the cancellation of the third stage to "protect the safety of the riders," the organization explained in the middle of the race.
The official meteorological institute Météo France warned of a new wave of storms during the night of Monday in the Mediterranean, mainly in Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, which could subsequently reach the Alpes-Maritimes and Corsica.
These storm episodes can cause rainfall of between 30 and 50 liters per square meter in an hour, hail, and wind gusts of 90 to 110 kilometers per hour, with local maximums of 120 km/h.
Instability is expected to continue over the coming days. On Tuesday, the storms will move toward the northeast, while on Wednesday, potentially violent storms could occur in a quarter of northwestern France, and on Thursday, new frequent storms are expected from the Massif Central to the northeast of the country.
[Publicidad]