After heavy rain on the Garonne linked to storm Nils, the red flood alert remains in force this weekend, in the South-West of France, in Gironde and in Lot-et-Garonne. The French risk information service speaks of a phenomenon of “generalized flooding” in France which exceeds “all (the) records”.
Published on: 02/14/2026 - 08:46 Modified on: 02/14/2026 - 14:34
To display this YouTube content, it is necessary to authorize audience measurement and advertising cookies.
An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the loading of the video player. To be able to watch this content, you must disable or uninstall it.
The phenomenon of "generalized flooding" which affects France exceeds "all (the) records" since Vigicrues was created in 2006, said Saturday February 14 the director of this public information service on flood risks, saying not to expect a "return to normal for the next few days".
“Today, we have been in intermittent orange or red vigilance for 30 days somewhere on the national territory (...) there are 81 departments in vigilance simultaneously for 154 rivers, so we have exceeded all our records,” indicated Lucie Chadourne-Facon, director of Vigicrues, in an interview with AFP.
In addition, France has achieved a "highest" soil humidity index, "its absolute record", since the start of compilation of this data in 1959.
Rain continues to fall on Saturday, raising fears of new safety risks. Red vigilance for floods is maintained this weekend in Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne, affected by a major episode on the Garonne favored by the passage of storm Nils, Météo-France announced on Saturday.
“Many rivers have already reached localized, even damaging, overflow levels,” writes Vigicrues in its 6:00 a.m. bulletin. “For rivers on orange or red alert, significant and major overflows are in progress or expected in the next 24 hours.”
Saturday and Sunday, around ten western departments are placed on orange vigilance, from Ille-et-Vilaine to Ariège via Charente-Maritime, and around 70 on yellow vigilance in the rest of the country.
See alsoNils, a storm amplified by climate change
More rain expected
Lucie Chadourne-Facon, director of Vigicrues, warned on Friday that the episode is "not over at all" due to further expected rain.
After storm Nils, which caused at least two deaths in France and caused extensive material damage, Météo-France noted "heavy accumulations" of rain "on already soggy soils", with in places 60 to 100 mm from Tuesday to Thursday, "locally 150 mm in 72 hours", notably in the Massif Central, Périgord and the Garonne valley.
Also read: Storm Nils caused a second death in France, threatening floods in the South-West
Evacuations of residents took place on Friday on the banks of the Garonne, the flood partially flooding several municipalities. In Lot-et-Garonne, "nearly 900 people were evacuated from 20 municipalities", notably "following the damage to natural dikes", according to the Agen prefecture.
In Bergerac, in Dordogne, nearly thirty people were subject to preventive evacuation.
As of Friday evening, 70% of homes had been able to be replenished with electricity nationally but more than 260,000 remained without power, according to network manager Enedis.
With AFP
Keywords associated with the article
The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.
