France Gets A Deadly Deluge

Fierce weekend rainstorms in southeast France that set off mudslides and flooding has killed at least 22 people, including four family members who died when a wall of mud slammed into their home.

The death toll crept up steadily as rescuers uncovered victims of the storm from cars, homes and streets. Ten people were still missing 24 hours after the deluge began, local officials said.

Torrential rains struck the Tarn, the Aude, the Eastern Pyrenees and the Herault regions of southeast France, setting off mudslides and floods that inundated roads and homes, smashed cars and damaged bridges.

Water six feet deep engulfed the streets of some villages in the area.

A wall of mud slammed into four homes early Saturday in the Tarn town of Labastide-Rouairoux. In one house, the mud quickly engulfed the living room, killing a mother and her three children, local officials said. Only the father escaped alive.

Four people drowned Friday night in their car near the medieval walled city of Carcassonne, in the Aude. A 22-year-old woman was killed after she slipped into a ditch while trying to escape from her car in the Eastern Pyrenees region.

Among others killed in the Aube region -- the worst hit with 13 deaths reported -- were a three-year-old child and a 94-year-old woman, both drowned in flood waters.

The Defense Ministry ordered some 800 rescuers, including soldiers, into the flooded southeast. Helicopters also were sent.

President Jacques Chirac visited the Aude on Saturday to convey "the nation's solidarity" with the regions and families of victims.

Heavy rain began falling in the Eastern Pyrenees region about noon Friday and spread to other areas of southeast France.

Michel Garcia, a meteorologist with the national weather service in the hard-hit Herault region, said the deluge was due to a cold front from Russia that met up with the still-warm temperatures of the Mediterranean. Rains were pushed by heavy winds.

Police evacuated 2,000 people from homes in the Eastern Pyrenees and 60 residents of a nursing home in the Tarn. Electricity and phone service were cut in numerous areas, and dozens of villages were isolated because of flooded roads.