Flash floods hit southwestern France, at least 13 dead - update

We are desperate for rain.
Farmers are appealing for government aid as they already feeding this year’s hay harvest.
The fields are brown.

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Some of our forumites are in the flooded area…

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When we lived in the Minervois we had a flash flood in our village in October 2002 and two and a half metres of water in our house. We were fed by the Croix Rouge for three days along with about half the village and there was a great sense of community. We did lose a lot of stuff and had to vacate the house for six months whilst it was dried out and rebuilt so I know what those people are going through. It is not a pleasant experience but you have to keep smiling and counting the blessings.

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Same here for us Jane, have never seen the countryside around us like this. My 'etang has never been so low that I can actually climb down inside and walk all around it. Watching the French news and the awful images we see in the Aude it’s almost as though we are in another country !

In June 2010 we had a flood in my neck of the woods. I was on the way to fly out of Marseille airport when it started to rain heavily but little did I think that when I got back a couple of days later the local town and villages would be devastated. Dozens of people were drowned in Draguignan and the surrounding villages and some of the damage is only being repaired now. The whole centre of Les Arcs was swept away. Our house is on the side of a valley so it was safe from flooding but it took a battering from the wind. When the weather cuts up rough here it can be very rough.

Here in the Dronne valley it seems as though we are in an area of rain shadow.
What is ‘normal’ now?