A Portuguese emigrant was among the 17 people known to have died in the devastating flash floods that hit the French Riviera on Saturday night.
With at least another four people still missing, authorities are releasing the names of those killed when the equivalent of two months of rain fell in two terrifying hours.
Forty-seven-year-old Maria da Conceição Silva Meira from Gondar, Guimarães drowned, trapped inside her car in Nice, reports Jornal de Notícias.
Resident in France for many years, she was described as a mother of two, one of which is a minor.
The trail of death and destruction caused by the floods has led to French president François Hollande appealing for the “solidarity of the nation”.
Maria da Conceição was not the only person to drown in her car. Other drivers also died after being stuck in a tunnel.
An eyewitness has told reporters how the rain was “slow in the beginning” but then “in an instant” it became “ten times worse”.
“Before we knew it, within 20 minutes, you couldn’t see the sidewalks. They were rapids”, the man told Sky News.
