Severe Storms and Heavy Rain Claim at Least 7 Lives in Italy, France, and Switzerland
France, Switzerland, and Italy were hit by severe storms and heavy rainfall last weekend. The downpours triggered landslides in mountainous regions and caused flash floods, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate their homes urgently, resulting in at least seven deaths.
In the southern Swiss cantons of Ticino and Valais, severe thunderstorms on the 30th caused a landslide in the Valle Maggia area of Ticino, resulting in four deaths and two missing people. Swiss authorities have deployed helicopters to evacuate people from nearby campsites in the disaster area. In Luxembourg, local homes were inundated with mud, leaving the areas from outside to inside covered in sludge. In the evening of the 30th local time, authorities issued an orange rain warning and evacuated 500,600 people. No casualties have been reported so far.
Heavy rainfall also affected northern Italy, causing flash floods. Small cars were trapped in the mudflows, and authorities deployed helicopters to successfully rescue a family of three. In the Aube department of the Grand Est region in France, local authorities reported that on the 29th, three elderly individuals in their 70s and 80s died after their car was crushed by a fallen tree. Another person in the car is currently in the intensive care unit.
Scientists attribute these extreme weather events, such as floods and storms, to climate change caused by human activities, which have become more severe, frequent, and prolonged compared to the past.
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