France must declare a natural disaster after the ravages caused by storms | News from the world

France will declare the state of natural disaster after rain and hail storms hit southeast Saturday, causing devastating harvests.

The lightning storms, which brought hail as big as ping-pong balls in some areas, killed two people in France and Switzerland and injured at least 10 others.

The most affected region, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, is at the heart of French food production and is nicknamed the "orchard of France".

Didier Guillaume, the Minister of Agriculture, said that the government would organize a "general mobilization" and would introduce emergency measures to deal with what he described as a disaster for farmers .

"Everything will be done to help. The state of natural disaster will be declared, "said Guillaume on French television. "The goal is that no farmer is forced to close his doors."

Nine French departments were put on alert this weekend after warnings of violent storms, hail and winds. The storms were brief but catastrophic, especially in the Drôme and Isère.

"It lasted 10 minutes, but 10 minutes of hail storm … there is a lot of damage in an area of ​​10 km from the Drôme," added the minister.

Guillaume said that many farmers had lost 80 to 100 percent of their crops. He added that the state of disaster would be declared when the magnitude of the devastation would be known "in a day or two".

A 51-year-old German tourist was killed on Saturday afternoon after a tree crushed her camping car on a holiday site in Tanninges, Haute-Savoie.

Storms have also hit western Switzerland with winds of up to 110 km / h, according to the MeteoSwiss national forecaster.

A woman drowned in Lake Geneva when her boat sank, police said. A man in the same boat was able to swim to another ship and fired two flares, but by the time rescuers arrived they could not find the woman. His body was then found by divers.

The storm also damaged 465 boats participating in an annual regatta on the lake.

Grégory Chardon, fruit farmer from La Roche-de-Glun, in the center of the storm, said most of his apricots, peaches and cherries had been destroyed.

Chardon, president of the local farmers' union, said he had never been a witness to the weather. "The damage is enormous in a vast area – cereals, greenhouses, market gardens and vines have been affected," he said.

Hailstones broke windshields and damaged homes, schools and public buildings. Several trees fell on train lines and fire and emergency services struggled to cope with broken roofs. More than 2,000 homes were without electricity Sunday.

Marie-Hélène Thoravaldes, mayor of Romans-sur-Isère, also affected, said: "It was apocalyptic."

FranceInfo has published photographs showing uprooted trees, floods and destruction by the storm.

Videos on social networks showed the scale of the disaster. The local prefect tweeted photographs of a school with its broken windows and a meeting of the Minister of Agriculture gathering firefighters were mobilized to deal with floods and damage.