The alert was downgraded to the orange level on Oct 18, indicating that water levels would come down again.“ At certain places in the Ardeche region, up to 700mm of water has fallen in 48 hours.... That’s more than a year’s rainfall in Paris, so it’s absolutely gigantic, ” Ms Agnes Pannier-Runacher, France’s environment minister, told BFM TV. French news stations showed cars, traffic signs and cattle being swept away by the floods.... The A47 highway close to Lyon was temporarily transformed i