Hail Rains Down Upon the Nice Region
Crop damage will be expensive for business owners
As we reported earlier this week the huge storms and flooding in the western parts of Provence have caused a lot of destruction and devastation across the region.
Despite all of this the communities affected have responded positively with volunteers springing into action to assist with the removal of uprooted trees by the Alzon River, and distributing over a thousand sachets of drinking water an hour to areas that have been deprived of running water.
Closer to the coastal towns and cities however the weather was also violent but has inflicted a different kind of damage. In Grasse, vicious hailstorms, with hailstones measuring several centimtres in diametre, destroyed greenhouses and crops on Monday morning. Smashing greenhouses to pieces and crushing thousands of square metres of vegetables, horticulturalist Jean-Claude Viale thinks that there may be as much as €100,000 of damage to his own land and crops and believes he may well be unable to continue his business unless he is compensated by insurance companies. His nephew André also lost 100kg worth of courgettes, and his fields of Swiss chard were utterly destroyed.
Sadly, the hailstorm cannot be classified as a natural disaster, so victims of the catastrophe will not be able to claim compensation for the damage caused, unless they were already subscribed to receive insurance cover for damage caused by “storms, hail and snow”. All those affected by the damage have been advised that they should consult their insurance provider immediately, but for most it may be a very disappointing and difficult time.
This is not the first time this year that Grasse has been affected by severe weather. It was reported in the news back in June that Rob Lowe and his family had to be rescued from their holiday home in the town of Grasse after floods raged in the wake of a huge storm that poured down three months of rainfall in less than four hours! They were evacuated by rescuers and posted this message on Instagram, "My wife being rescued this am (morning) in the horrific flooding in Grasse France. Glad we are safe. Grateful to first responders."
The period of stormy weather has also affected areas along the Italian Riviera, as well as the Cote d'Azur.
