It only lasted a few minutes, but the devastation in Pomas is enormous. Yesterday afternoon, a tornado swept through the small village in southern France. Houses were blown away, roofs were torn off, cars were lifted and thrown down again, and large trees snapped like matchsticks.
The village with a thousand inhabitants has practically been wiped off the map, writes the French newspaper Libération. "It looks as if we have been bombed," a resident told BFMTV. At least 300 houses were damaged. Sometimes it was just some blown-off roof tiles, but entire homes also collapsed. The whole village is scattered with debris: pieces of wood and sheet material, garden furniture, trash bins. A car is upside down.
A man walks towards the village, falls to his knees and bursts into tears, writes Le Parisien. "I have no roof over my head anymore, I have no roof over my head anymore," he sobs, while a neighbor helps him up.
'Clouds started to rotate'
"It happened so fast that we could do nothing," a woman told BFMTV. She described the frightening event as a disaster movie. "The sky suddenly darkened. I went outside and saw all kinds of things flying through the air. I ran with my dogs to a safe place."
The Belgian newspaper HLN spoke to two Flemings who were on vacation nearby and saw the severe weather approaching. "We saw in the distance that the clouds started to rotate. That is very strange to see, then some panic arose. I did use the word 'apocalyptic' for a moment."
The damage in the village of Pomas in pictures:
In the short time the severe weather lasted, 39 people were injured as far as is known now. Two of them are in critical condition in the hospital. A pregnant woman was buried under a falling wall of her house. She was protected by her sofa but was injured.
Missing persons found alive
Firefighters, specialized rescue workers, and search dogs worked through the night. This morning, the two people who were still missing were found. They were pulled from the rubble by the fire brigade and have minor injuries.
Yesterday, 600 of the 1000 inhabitants of the village were evacuated. Shelters were set up in the area where they could spend the night. The Red Cross was also there to provide assistance. The village was guarded all night by the gendarmerie to prevent looting. The access roads to the village are still impassable due to trees and debris on the road.
Residents cannot return home yet, local authorities said this morning at a press conference. All buildings must first be checked for risk of collapse. "Houses may look undamaged but might not be. Our priority is the safety of all residents," they said.
Slowly the extent of the damage is becoming clear, and it is evident that this tornado was of unprecedented intensity. The French weather institute had issued an orange code for severe thunderstorms. Storm experts from the European organization Estofex chose the highest warning level.
Hurricane specialist Nadia Bloemendaal from the KNMI about this tornado:
"This tornado originated from a supercell. That is a kind of rotating thunderstorm that can sustain itself. That is different from the normal thunderstorms we regularly have. Those often disappear when the sun goes down because they get their energy from the sun. Supercells are different: that system has its own energy balance.
To let such a supercell develop, you need the right conditions: warm and moist air. Climate change makes those conditions more favorable for this kind of thunderstorms. The chance that they occur is therefore increasing.
What that will mean in absolute frequency is still unclear. But that the conditions for this are becoming more favorable due to climate change is something science basically agrees on."
The power supply is gradually being restored. Yesterday, more than 7000 households in the Languedoc-Roussillon region were without electricity. This morning there were still 1400. In Pomas, dozens of emergency workers are still present. Cleaning up the village and inspecting homes will certainly take the whole day.
Then the recovery must still begin, because "everything has to be made again," says a resident. "Everything is broken."