380 municipalities across France have been designated as natural disaster zones, according to a decree published in the Official Journal on Tuesday. This is mostly due to damage caused by exceptional floods that occurred from 16 to 20 October which particularly affected regions in the centre-east and the south of the country.
11 departments fall under the "natural disaster zone" designation, which will open the way to insurance compensation for people affected by last month's floods.
380 towns were affected in Ardèche, Rhône, Loire, Alpes-Maritimes, Yvelines, Essonne, Lozère, Loire-Atlantique, Eure-et-Loir, Haute-Loire and Corrèze.
Almost all of the municipalities were affected by floods and mudslides over the same period from October 16 to 20 this year.
In total, more than a thousand people were evacuated; roads, railways and schools were closed and several thousand homes were deprived of electricity.
National weather bureau Météo-France said that flooding in Ardèche had been "the most intense ever recorded over two days since the beginning of the 20th century".
Olivier Amrane, the president of the Ardèche departmental council said "we have never experienced a disaster of such magnitude".
Millions of euros in damages
Meanwhile, France's public insurance fund CCR estimated the cost of the floods 17 and 18 October in the centre-east, south-east and Ile-de-France to be somewhere between €350 million and €420 million.
The combination of heavy rainfall falling on already-saturated ground, after a rainier than normal month of September led to significant overflows in local rivers, the insurance agency said.
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Last week, Météo France reported that just over a year's worth of rain fell on France over the first ten months of 2024 – for the first time in 35 years.
On average, 940 millimetres of rain fell between 1 January and 29 October 2024, compared to 935 mm over one year, according to data from the institute, which uses the average rainfall between 1991 and 2020 as a reference.
"This excess rainfall is nevertheless not unprecedented in several regions," the weather bureau said.
Corsica, as of 29 October, was still far from its average cumulative figure over one year with 20 percent less rainfall, while Normandy in the north clocked 11 percent less than its average.
Other regions, like Ile de France –where Paris is situated – saw a 20 percent increase in average rainfall.
Adaptation plan
French Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher warned that the increase in natural disasters goes hand in hand with climate change.
"I believe that today we must look at the situation head on. These are episodes that we are going to experience more and more regularly," she warned on 18 October.
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On 25 October, Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced the launch of a two-month national consultation to complete France's new adaptation plan to global warming.
The plan is designed based on the hypothesis of a warming of 4°C in France by the end of the century compared to the pre-industrial era (compared to 1.7°C at this stage ).
It includes 51 measures around five main areas: protecting population, insuring risks, adapting human activities, protecting natural and cultural spaces and mobilising public and private bodies.
