End of the stormy rain episode in the southwest of France, where a train was evacuated; the Var remains on orange alert

Hailstorms and heavy rains hit the Southwest late Monday, May 19. Firefighters carried out hundreds of operations in the departments that were then placed on orange alert by Météo-France (Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonne, Lot, Tarn-et-Garonne, Tarn, Haute-Garonne), mainly due to flooded roads.

Schools also had to be evacuated, as did a TGV train, which had to stop on the track in the evening and whose 507 passengers were evacuated and taken by bus to a municipal hall in Tonneins. The rescue operation, which took place between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., mobilized around sixty people (firefighters, police officers, Red Cross volunteers, etc.), according to the Lot-et-Garonne prefecture. An Intercités train from Toulouse to Paris remained stuck all night in Agen due to the same incident, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist who was on board. Its passengers were due to return by bus to Toulouse on Tuesday morning to take other trains to Paris.

According to an SNCF spokesperson, train services will remain suspended for "at least several days" between Agen and Marmande, impacting TGV service between Bordeaux and Toulouse. The railway company is expected to provide further details later today.

The rains gradually ended overnight from Monday to Tuesday. In the space of a few hours, cumulative rainfall reached 68 millimeters (mm) in Lavaur (Tarn), 80 mm in Saint-Félix-Lauragais (Haute-Garonne), 78 mm in Prayssas (Lot-et-Garonne), 78 mm in Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne), and 106 mm in Puycelsi (Tarn).

For Tuesday, Météo-France has maintained an orange alert for rain, flooding and thunderstorms in the Var region. In the department on Tuesday morning, thunderstorms could "produce heavy rainfall, from 80 mm to 120 mm in three hours . " "The heavy rains in the Southwest have eased and no longer require any special monitoring. Thunderstorms are developing in the Mediterranean. They are expected to be locally violent on the PACA coast this Tuesday morning," Météo-France wrote in its latest bulletin, published at 6 a.m.

"Thunderstorms are expected from Gard to the Alpes-Maritimes on Tuesday morning. Their intensity is still uncertain, but they could be accompanied by hail, strong gusts and produce accumulations of around 30 mm, or even more occasionally, in a short period of time. A worsening of the vigilance level is not impossible for the coastal departments bordering the Var, as well as for the Gard," adds the meteorological institute.