PARIS: Heavy snowfall across a large swath of southeast France has left one person dead and cut power to some 300,000 homes, with icy conditions snarling train and road traffic Friday.
Grid operator Enedis said 300,000 homes were without electricity Friday, mainly in the Drome, Ardeche, Isere and Rhone departments, which include the cities of Lyon and Grenoble, a spokesman told BFM television. “We’ve had trees knocked down, and branches weighed down with snow have frozen and caused short-circuits,” he said, adding that treacherous roads were making it hard for teams to reach and fix the cables.
The Meteo France weather agency had lifted travel warnings for much of the area by Friday morning, though maintained alerts for snow and black ice in the Saone-et-Loire department.