At least 17 people drowned and four more were missing when torrential rains flooded the Côte d’Azur between Cannes and Nice overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
The prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France said there was "limited hope" of finding the missing people. Rescue workers found it difficult to reach some areas, and it is feared the death toll could rise.
Residents of the area spoke of the extraordinary violence and rapidity of the storm, which uprooted trees on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, carried cars from the streets of Cannes into the Mediterranean, and severely disrupted air, rail and road traffic.
The largest number of victims were in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, a suburb of Cannes, where seven people went to underground car parks with the intention of moving their vehicles to higher ground. Their bodies were found floating near the entrances to the car parks.
‘Not disciplined’
The mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, lamented that people were "not always disciplined", adding that "we had people who seemed very concerned about their cars, when they should have saved lives".
Three elderly women drowned in their ground-floor room at the Clos Saint-Grégoire retirement home in Biot. Two employees managed to save some 20 residents to a higher floor. A family of three drowned in their car at Vallauris-Golfe-Juan, after ignoring warnings not to enter a tunnel.
At least two people died in Cannes. An Englishwoman drowned at the Pylone campground in Antibes. “She came every year and was so happy that she stayed after the summer,” the camp manager told BFM television.
A woman was also found dead at Mougins. The Brague river, which runs along the coastline, overflowed its banks, flooding the streets of Cannes, Antibes, Mandelieu, Villeneuve-Loubet and Nice.
Nine looters were arrested in Cannes when they stole merchandise from shops whose windows were blown in.
Rescue mission
Some of the 105 helicopter rescue missions were to hoist campers from the roofs of caravans in campsites at Antibes.
Helicopter images showed the coast to be a picture of desolation, with roads blocked by mudslides, fallen trees and cars that piled up with the force of the torrent. Fire trucks pumped water from flooded buildings.
President Francois Hollande toured the area with interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve and promised to declare it a natural disaster zone at Wednesday's cabinet meeting, so that indemnities will be paid within three months. He also promised compensation to shopkeepers and artisans.
Mr Hollande linked the catastrophe to climate change, saying: “We must take decisions. That is what is at stake at COP21.” The 21st UN conference on climate change will take place in Paris in December.
‘Solidarity’
Pope Francis called for "concrete solidarity" with the victims in his angelus.
At the height of the storm on Saturday night, 70,000 homes were without electricity, and 15,000 remained without water or electricity on Sunday night.
The tourist season had not completely ended, and some 500 tourists, including many Britons and Danes, slept in Nice airport overnight. Flights resumed normally from Nice and Hyères on Sunday.
Thousands of people were stranded overnight in trains. All trains between Nice and Toulon were cancelled on Sunday and the SNCF railway company said traffic would be severely disrupted on Monday.
Weather forecasters said that although the storm was predicted, it was impossible to know it would be so severe.
"You have to realise that 107 litres of water fell on every square metre of a zone that was only 15km by 15km," Jean-Charles Rivrain of Météo France told La Provence newspaper.
“We don’t have the tools to predict on such a small scale.”
