Meteo-France

From Le Figaro
11.06.2008

THE CHILD HIT BY LIGHTNING REMAINS IN A PRECARIOUS STATE

Doctors at the La Timone hospital in Marseille, where the boy was transported Tuesday night, refuse to make a prognostic. His five friends, also hit by lightning, have returned to their homes.

Lightning struck Tuesday six children on a football field at Thor (Vaucluse) situated approximately fifteen kilometers from Avignon. The children, all aged 11 or 12, were in training with their Club, the Union sportive thoroise. The trainer stopped the session because of a storm and it was as they were regaining the change rooms that they were struck by lightning.

One of the children, seriously hit and who experienced cardio-pulmonary arrest, was transported in the evening to La Timone hospital in Marseille. He is today in a «precarious state» according to a spokesperson for Public Assistance - Hôpitaux de Marseille(AH-HM). «He is on life-support. Doctors refuse to make a prognostic», she added. The five other children, more lightly hurt but two of whom fainted, were hospitalized in Avignon. They were returned home Tuesday evening.

VIOLENT STORMS

The violent storms which touched Tuesday evening on the South and Center of the country also caused numerous material damages: many hundreds of houses were made uninhabitable, following flooding and mudslides, and firemen were called. In the Southwest, one hundred houses were damaged in the village of Roquefort. In neighboring Communes, streams ran over, causing mudslides and floods. Certain roads were cut. There were also violent storms in the Gers, giving rise to floods and mudslides. Some forty firemen made 25 interventions in the evening, in particular near Auch where a camping site was flooded at Roquelaure. Three campers had to find new lodgings. Wednesday morning, the water-level had gone back down in the Southwest.

Same causes and consequences at Dijon, were firemen were called over 350 times mainly to deal with basement floodings and in commercial establishments after a violent storm which touched on the Bourgignonne Capital. There were no victims but some fifteen people had to to evacuated from a building in Chenove, in the suburbs of Dijon, because of a fire started as a consequence of lightning. In the Ain region, where water rose some 1,50 meters in certain places, firemen were called 150 times because of flooding.

METEO-FRANCE lifted Tuesday evening its orange alert (level 3 out of 4) for six Departments in the Western part of the country, but announced a new one, yellow, for flooding in two Departments of the Southwest of France, in effect for 24 hours starting Wednesday morning.