Hailstorms: Railways at a standstill, schools closed and fields flooded in the Southwest

The Southwest is struggling to recover this Tuesday, May 20, following violent hailstorms and heavy rain . Cumulative rainfall exceeded 110 mm in some places, the equivalent of more than a month's worth of rain falling in a few hours.

TGV trains between Bordeaux and Toulouse will remain suspended for "at least several days," as severe weather caused ballast to collapse under a railway line in the Tonneins area (Lot-et-Garonne), creating large depressions under the tracks. One train was forced to stop in the middle of the track in the evening, with its 507 passengers evacuated by bus to a municipal hall around 1 a.m. after a three-hour wait. The rescue operation mobilized around sixty people (firefighters, police officers, Red Cross volunteers, etc.), according to the prefecture.

"We were on the verge of disaster, the tracks were exposed and the TGV was suspended above the void," the mayor of Tonneins, Dante Rinaudo, told AFP. Describing "avalanches of water" in the town, which flooded cellars and houses, the elected official is calling for recognition of the state of natural disaster.

An Intercités train from Toulouse to Paris was also stuck overnight in Agen due to the same incident, according to an AFP journalist on board. Its passengers were due to return by bus to Toulouse on Tuesday morning to catch other trains to Paris.

Details on the resumption of traffic on the Paris-Bordeaux-Toulouse TGV line are expected to be provided by SNCF during the day.

In Haute-Garonne, firefighters were called nearly 1,500 times overnight and responded 283 times, according to Ici Occitanie . The severe weather caused a tree to fall in the center of Toulouse, flooding of secondary roads, and school evacuations. As of Tuesday morning, some schools remain closed, while school transportation is not running.

In addition, crops in the Garonne Valley, already affected by excessive rainfall in recent months , have been affected. Farmers are expected to assess the damage in the coming days. In Lot-et-Garonne, plots and hillsides planted with summer crops (sunflowers, corn, soybeans) have been "swept away by mudslides," according to Patrick Franken, president of the Chamber of Agriculture. "We've already seen storms in May, but with this intensity, it's very rare."

According to her counterpart in Landes, Marie-Hélène Cazaubon, the episode also partially affected the vineyards of Armagnac and Tursan, where the damage was being assessed by producers.

Spectacular images and videos of the storm have been posted by internet users since Monday evening.

The rains then gradually eased overnight from Monday to Tuesday. As of 6 a.m., orange alerts have been lifted in the region, according to the latest Météo-France bulletin. However, Haute-Garonne, Lot, Aveyron, Tarn, and Tarn-et-Garonne remain on yellow alert.

In the Southeast, the Var remains on orange alert this Tuesday for rain, flooding, and thunderstorms, at least until midday. "A depression is circulating in the Mediterranean and causing strong thunderstorms in the coastal departments of the Paca region," the forecast service wrote in its latest bulletin at 10 a.m.

In this department, storms could indeed "produce high rainfall intensities, from 80 to 120 mm in three hours," Météo-France warned in a previous bulletin. "Storms are forming in the Mediterranean. They are expected to be locally violent on the PACA coast this Tuesday morning," the meteorological agency added.

Update : at 11:16 a.m., additions of statements from the mayor of Tonneins, details on agricultural damage in Lot-et-Garonne and Landes and latest update from Météo France concerning the South-East