A comparative analysis of the loss of life during two recent floods in France: the sea surge caused by the storm Xynthia and the flash flood in Var

A framework to assess quality and uncertainty in disaster loss data

“…Furthermore, the same number of victims was verified during the field survey carried out by Vinet et al (2012).…”

“…In France, the overall impacts of the storm were 47 deaths, 79 injured, material damage to close to 500,000 people and a total damage cost estimated to be around 2500 million Euros. Detailed analyses and surveys of the impacts of the Xynthia storm can be found, for example, in (Anziani 2010;Bersani et al 2010;Vinet et al 2012;Kolen et al 2013). The uncertainty analysis of the death toll in France presented herein is mostly based on the data available in (Anziani 2010;Vinet et al 2012).…”

“…Detailed analyses and surveys of the impacts of the Xynthia storm can be found, for example, in (Anziani 2010;Bersani et al 2010;Vinet et al 2012;Kolen et al 2013). The uncertainty analysis of the death toll in France presented herein is mostly based on the data available in (Anziani 2010;Vinet et al 2012). As referred, 47 people lost their lives in France as a result of the storm: 41 died due to the coastal flooding, while six died from direct or indirect wind effects.…”

“…• Human error-Grade 5-The use of standard DVI procedures to establish the deaths attributed to the storm complemented by the statements obtained from the fire services (Vinet et al 2012) are considered sufficient to assign this grade.…”

“…• Credibility 2-Grade 5-Collecting the number of deaths based on the report from the French government (Anziani 2010), complemented by the statements obtained from the fire services (Vinet et al 2012), is considered to be sufficient to assign this grade.…”