Two killed as storm winds tear across France

This morning, of the 31 departments hit yesterday only Corse Sud remained on orange alert and, as had been the case along the Atlantic coastline, people were warned to stay away from coastal paths and roads because of the danger of high waves. The Corsican alert was lifted mid-morning.

High winds were still affecting the Mediterranean coast, with up to 100kph in Var, Bouches du Rhône and Pyrénées-Orientales.

Fallen trees littered the countryside and a 43-year-old car driver was killed in Coulounieix-Chamiers, near Périgueux in Dordogne, when one fell on his vehicle. A lorry driver was also crushed by a falling branch in Thorame-Haute, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.

Winds in Périgueux reached 121kph at their worst but had earlier been 193kph at Camaret, Finistère, 191kph at Ouessant, 179kph at Ile de Groix, 136kph at Brest and 130kph at Lorient.

Three teenagers were seriously injured when a tree fell on them on their way to school in Carhaix-Plouguer, Finistère, while later in the day several children were hurt in Brive, Corrèze, when the maternelle school roof caved in.

A school bus with 52 pupils on board was blown off the road at Saint-Marcel-Bel-Accueil, Isère. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

In Abondance, Haute-Savoie, trees fell on a cable car gondola, injuring the two people on board.

Of the 600,000 homes without power, all but 260,000 had been reconnected this morning. The massive total was the worst power outage since 1999, when a black-out hit three million households.

The worst-affected area today is Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with 100,000 homes still out, while there are 60,000 in Brittany, 25,000 in Pays-de-la-Loire and 60,000 in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

Readers on the Connexion Facebook page had a screed of shock tales – with one being brushed by the branches of a falling tree after dropping her children at school. Another was in a cable car being rocked violently as the winds nearly blew the doors out - a 10min journey down the mountain took 45.

However, Météo France said the winds, which hit 193kph hurricane force in Finistère, were not really exceptional as they were ‘gusts’ and not sustained as in a true hurricane where continuous 200kph+ winds were common.

Magnifique #Tempete de passage a #Nantes #timelapse sur la pointe ouest de l'#iledenantes pic.twitter.com/Kqz8jsekQj

— Valéry joncheray (@vjoncheray) March 6, 2017