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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Elisa C-Rossow, as told to Sean Holman and Aldyn Chwelos

‘I’m imagining what my mother went through in her last seconds’ – This is climate breakdown

  • Location Saint-Martin-Vésubie, France

  • Disaster name Storm Alex, 2020

Elisa is a women’s clothing designer who runs her own label in Montreal, Canada. She was born and grew up in Nice, France, where much of her family remained, but was in Canada with her children and partner when Storm Alex gusted towards France and the mountain village where her mother lived. The storm was a powerful extratropical cyclone that caused extreme flooding around the Mediterranean in October 2020, killing at least 15 people. Three months’ worth of rain – 50cm – fell on Saint-Martin-Vésubie in one day.

My mom found this house that had a lot of charm in a small village called Saint-Martin-Vésubie. When she bought it with her savings in 2015 they did a lot of renovations. My dad helped her with the construction and contractors. For a bit, they were happy there.

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