A stormy episode of rare violence fell on the island, Thursday morning, killing at least 5 people and around twenty injured – including four in absolute emergency. At the heart of the tourist season, most victims are holidaymakers.
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The balance sheet is heavy in Corsica after a stormy episode of rare violence, Thursday, August 18, which left five dead and twenty wounded – including four in absolute emergency -, according to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who went there at the end of the day “to express his support for residents and vacationers”.
A Herculean storm, pouring gusts sometimes exceeding 200 km/h, intense lightning and heavy rains, crossed the island from west to east, between 8:15 a.m. and 9:35 am. A peak at 224 km/h in the mountain village of Marignana was noted by Météo-France, which had placed the two departments in yellow vigilance, before going late to orange in the morning.
Most victims are vacationers, in this period which marks the peak of the tourist season on the island. In the Pine forest of Calvi (Haute-Corse), a 46-year-old camper was crushed by the fall of a tree on his bungalow. In Erbalonga, a balcony on the sea on the outskirts of Bastia, the authorities deplored the death of a 60 -year -old kayaker, whose disappearance had been reported a few hours earlier by her husband. Still at sea, but this time in Corsica-du-Sud, a 62-year-old fisherman died in the Gulf of Girolata, at the gates of the Scandola Nature Reserve.
On the outskirts of the Liamone beach, located in the town of Coggia, about thirty kilometers from Ajaccio, a 72 -year -old woman was fatally struck by the roof of a hut torn off by the wind . Not far away, in the seaside resort of Sagone, a 13 -year -old teenager in a vacation lost her life in a campsite, a victim of the fall of a tree on the bungalow she occupied with her family. His uncle and his 11 -year -old sister, seriously injured, were transported to the Mercy hospital center in Ajaccio.
“The trees fell like matches”
In this outdoor hotel establishment, like the other vacationers, four holiday colonies – with 124 children and twenty -two adults – were taken care of, mainly in the village hall and at the convent of Vico.
“In this campsite, people were screaming in all directions, trees, huge alders, fell like matches, it lasted ten minutes,” reports the mayor (various right) of Vico and president to the world Intercommunality, François Colonna. “The villagers took care of the children of the summer camp to change their minds before their departure on the continent on Saturday because they suffered a trauma,” said the councilor. “There was a dark mass, broken water, and it was imprisoned that a pocket was suddenly died: the force of the wind moved my 4 × 4 of 6 meters,” continues Mr. Colonna .
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