France to declare Corsica storm natural disaster after storms lash Europe
Paris, Aug 19 (EFE).- The French government said Friday that it would declare a natural disaster in Corsica after the Mediterranean island was lashed by a violent storm that killed five people.
France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said the declaration would take effect on Wednesday next week when the Council of Ministers resumes after the summer.
“This will allow the companies affected to be compensated more quickly,” Darmanin told reporters at a campsite in Calvi in the north of the tourist island where a 46-year-old man was killed by a falling tree.
On Thursday, Corsica was hit by gusts of wind that reached up to 224 kilometers per hour in what the regional president of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni, described as an “apocalyptic” event.
The five victims included a 13-year-old girl who was hit by a falling tree at a campsite in Sagone, a 72-year-old woman hit by a roof on a beach in Coggia, a 62-year-old fisherman in the Gulf of Girolata, a woman kayaker in Erbalunga, on the Cap Corse and the 46-year old man in Calvi.
In neighboring Italy, two people were killed and some 20 injured Thursday as a severe storm lashed across northern and central parts of the country.
The victims were a man and a woman who were killed by falling trees in the towns Lucca and Carrara in Tuscany.
The northern regions of Piedmont, Liguria and Emilia-Romagna were also affected by the storms and violent gusts of wind that reached up to 120 kilometers per hour.
Meanwhile in Austria, five people were killed and 13 injured in thunderstorms across the country Thursday.
The victims included two minors who were killed by falling trees near a lake in Carinthia, the worst-affected area.
The series of storms across the region follow an intense heatwave that has gripped Europe in recent weeks and caused some of the worst wildfires in decades. EFE
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