By Euronews
Published on
A lorry driver died after a tree branch fell on his vehicle near Dax in south-west France as Storm Nils battered the country with winds exceeding 160 kilometres per hour, authorities said on Thursday.
The driver was killed overnight on the D824 road at Mées near Dax in the Landes department, according to local media reports.
More than 850,000 homes were without electricity on Thursday morning, with most outages concentrated in Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie, according to grid operator Enedis. The company deployed more than 400 workers to restore power.
Wind gusts reached 162 km/h in Biscarrosse, 145 km/h in Pau and 132 km/h in Toulouse, according to meteorological measurements shared on social media.
State forecaster Météo France placed four departments under red alert on Thursday morning for wind, flooding and avalanche risks: Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Aude and Savoie. An additional 32 departments remained under orange alert.
Schools closed in Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales, the two departments facing the strongest winds.
The storm arrived late on Wednesday evening and swept across western France before moving southeast towards the Mediterranean coast and Corsica.
Vigicrues, the national flood monitoring service, warned the Garonne river could overflow, with potential flooding comparable to January 2022 levels. The Dordogne prefecture advised residents to remain indoors and postpone non-essential travel.
Numerous roads across the south-west were closed due to fallen trees, and rail services from Paris to the region faced heavy disruption, according to authorities.
A man in Bayonne suffered minor injuries after a tree fell on his car, whilst in Charente, 66 residents of a care home in La Rochefoucauld were evacuated as a precaution due to its location near a river.
Maritime traffic between Corsica and mainland France will be disrupted as the storm reaches the island on Thursday night, forecasters said.
Météo France expects winds to ease on Thursday morning in the south-west, during the evening in Mediterranean regions, and overnight Thursday into Friday morning for Corsica.