1.2 million homes were left without electricity in western France on Thursday, November 2, after Storm Ciaran had raged throughout the night. Windspeeds reached record-breaking levels of more than 190 km/h in a number of different locations in Brittany.

Since midnight, three north-western départements were gradually placed on red wind alert: Finistère at midnight, Côtes-d'Armor at 2 am, and Manche an hour later. Only the last two remained on this highest level of alert on Thursday morning.

Numerous fallen trees led to the temporary closure of some major roads. According to the prefecture, traffic was banned from the entire Finistère road network on Thursday morning, as the storm had caused "a large number of trees, branches and power and telephone lines to fall to the ground". The ban concerned "the entire road network", noted the prefecture.

A total of 31 departments have been placed on orange alert for "wave-submergence", "wind" or "rain-flooding." Paris is among the new locations placed on orange alert.

Le Monde