Three killed in violent storms in France

THREE people have been killed in the violent storms that battered a trail across France and have today seen 11 departments on orange alert. 

 

Flood risks from heavy rains have seen Ain (01), Ardèche (07), Côte-d’Or (21), Doubs (25), Isère (38), Jura (39), Loire (42), Rhône (69), Haute-Saône (70) and Saône-et-Loire (71) put on orange alert by Météo France while Drôme (26) faces violent thunderstorms and intense rains. 

 

Today the storms are heading from Rhône-Alpes into Bourgogne and Franche-Comté this morning and remaining for several hours with rains of up to 11cm and up to 4cm falling in an hour, before calmer weather returns in the afternoon as rains head west. Intense rains will continue in Ardèche and Drôme where dozens of lightning strikes are being reported. 

 

The storms left a trail of destruction from the west coast to the middle of the country yesterday with trees blown down, roofs blown off, power lines disrupted, vineyards and farm crops wiped out and a tornado blasting through five communes in Charente-Maritime. 

 

The heaviest toll came in the east where a 66-year-old man was killed in Laiz, near Mâcon in Ain, when he was hit when a roof was blown off. Seven people were hurt and three hospitalised after being hit by falling trees. 

 

Elsewhere in Rhône-Alpes, a 25-year-old man was killed when his car was hit by a falling tree in Limonest, near Lyon. The city itself saw parts of a building and many trees blown down, disrupting the tram service. 

 

Further north, in Aube, a 92-year-old man was found dead under the wreckage of his collapsed barn at Thieffrain in winds that reached 130kph and damaged more than 250 roofs as well as bringing down trees that injured three people. 

 

In Charente-Maritime the second tornado in a week – the first was on Sunday – wreaked 45 minutes of havoc in five communes near Saintes and damaged 60 buildings. 

 

The tornado started near Chaniers then swept towards La Chapelle-des-Pots, Migron and narrowly avoided Matha before devastating Thors et Sonnac. It blew itself out at Beauvais-sur-Matha on the border with Charente and, amazingly, no one was hurt. 

 

Newspaper Sud-Ouest had aerial photographs of the damage (here in the commune of Sonnac) from the Protection Civile’s Dragon 17 helicopter.

Courtesy of connexionfrance.com

http://tinyurl.com/pnatgke

Chile Earthquake: Aerial shots of destructive aftermath of tsunami

MAGNITUDE 5.5 NEAR EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=459809

Subject To Change

Depth: 60 km

Distances: 1768 km NE of Sapporo-shi, Japan / pop: 1,883,027 / local time: 17:58:43.8 2015-09-17
77 km E of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia / pop: 187,282 / local time: 20:58:43.8 2015-09-17

 

MAGNITUDE 5.5 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=459780

Subject To Change

Depth: 10 km

Distances: 230 km NW of Santiago, Chile / pop: 4,837,295 / local time: 02:44:39.6 2015-09-17
146 km N of Valparaíso, Chile / pop: 282,448 / local time: 02:44:39.6 2015-09-17
90 km W of Illapel, Chile / pop: 22,816 / local time: 02:44:39.6 2015-09-17

MAGNITUDE 5.5 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=459761

Subject To Change

Depth: 15 km

Distances: 257 km NW of Santiago, Chile / pop: 4,837,295 / local time: 01:26:38.4 2015-09-17
181 km N of Valparaíso, Chile / pop: 282,448 / local time: 01:26:38.4 2015-09-17
81 km W of Illapel, Chile / pop: 22,816 / local time: 01:26:38.4 2015-09-17

ONGOING QUAKE SWARM OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE

***VERY URGENT***

  ONGOING QUAKE SWARM

OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE

***BE ALERT***

MAGNITUDE 6.7 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20003kfv#general_summary

Subject To Change

Depth: 30 km

Distances: 53km (33mi) W of Illapel, Chile
75km (47mi) WNW of Salamanca, Chile
111km (69mi) NNW of La Ligua, Chile
115km (71mi) SSW of Ovalle, Chile
235km (146mi) NNW of Santiago, Chile

MAGNITUDE 6.5 COQUIMBO, CHILE

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20003kfj#general_summary

Subject To Change

Depth: 35 km

Distances: 54km (34mi) S of Ovalle, Chile
54km (34mi) SW of Monte Patria, Chile
62km (39mi) NNW of Illapel, Chile
82km (51mi) NNW of Salamanca, Chile
270km (168mi) NNW of Santiago, Chile

MEGA DIP SPIKES ON THE WEAK MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 00:00, 00:15, 00:30 HRS UTC

**VERY URGENT**

  MEGA DIP SPIKES ON THE WEAK MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 00:00, 00:15, 00:30 HRS UTC. FURTHER EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANO ACTIVITY & ADVERSE WEATHER PATTERNS WILL BE GREATLY INFLUENCED BY THE COSMIC RAYS STRIKING THE EARTH’S CORE

***BE ALERT***

MAGNITUDE 5.2 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=459704

Subject To Change

Depth: 15 km

Distances: 223 km NW of Santiago, Chile / pop: 4,837,295 / local time: 21:22:20.8 2015-09-16
143 km N of Valparaíso, Chile / pop: 282,448 / local time: 21:22:20.8 2015-09-16
76 km W of Illapel, Chile / pop: 22,816 / local time: 21:22:20.8 2015-09-16