More than half of France on alert orange snow

More than half of France was on orange alert on Friday, the Meteorological Services warned against the snow and ice. Read Article Pictures / Videos related TEMPERATURES IN WINTER Enlarge photo stubs failed bombing: suspect pleads not guilty Nigerian First direct flight from Tbilisi-Moscow conflict of August 2008 The setbacks d ? Yves Jego on Twitter More Articles on: Transportation Discussion: Transport Weather France placed 54 departments on alert until Saturday evening, the Ile-de-France to the Pyrenees through the Auvergne but also in Normandy and Alsace. Face to "hazardous weather", the agency calls for great vigilance, especially on the roads because of ice. The snow expected Saturday in the Paris region will lead to disruptions in air traffic. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has asked airlines to cancel 25% of flights at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle. In a statement, the DGAC recommends passengers to switch their carrier. Heavy snowfall disrupted transportation throughout the day on a large part of the country, particularly in the Rhone Valley and Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur (PACA). In the PACA region, some 30 cm of snow fell on Orange or Avignon (Vaucluse) and up to 40 cm in places by the National Traffic Information (CNIR). Precipitation was concentrated in the Vaucluse, Gard, and north and west of the Bouches-du-Rhone. In total, 21,200 homes were still without power late Friday afternoon, said ERDF, a subsidiary of EDF responsible for the distribution network. "Snow has agglomerated sticky lines on medium and low voltage, causing them to fall," said a spokesman for ERDF. The region, one of the most vulnerable of the French electric system due to low domestic production and a saturated network is placed on alert since Wednesday by the Orange network transmission (TEN). "We still fear overuse or incident on the power lines, said a spokesman for RTE. Incident, we could no longer guarantee food for all customers. "EUROSTAR ONE ON TWO Rail traffic was disrupted, with delays of one to three hours announced for some TGV. The regional line between Avignon and Miramas, which continues to Marseilles, was cut. Several secondary roads were cut in the Vaucluse. No school bus runs there, as in the Gard and part of the Var and Bouches-du-Rhone. At the airport of Marseille-Provence, however, the majority of flights have been insured. "Some flights were canceled Friday, mainly because of the weather at destination airports," he said in a statement that management had provided a device for emergency housing. In Lyon, 46 flights were canceled at the Saint-Exupery airport and flights kept recorded an average time of delay. Only a Eurostar train on two circulate this weekend between Paris and London due to weather, disrupting traffic in southern Britain. In the East, the movement restrictions imposed because of snowfall forced the Peugeot-Citroen plant in Sochaux and Mulhouse to discontinue production at the end of the afternoon. Heavy snowfalls are expected again in the night from Friday to Saturday in the West, already touched earlier in the week. Service France, edited by Sophie