Orange alert in the Gard and Hérault on 19 October: what the rules say about work when bad weather keeps you from getting there

What has been announced

In its bulletin of 18 October 2026 (16:09 Paris time), Météo-France placed the Gard (30) and Hérault (34) departments on orange alert for Monday 19 October, for two hazards at once: "rain and flooding" (pluie-inondation) and "thunderstorms" (orages). There is no red alert for 19 October in the bulletin.

The exact start and end times are on the vigilance.meteofrance.fr map. The alert map is updated at least twice a day, at 6:00 and 16:00, so the level can move either way.

We explained what the alert colours mean on 6 October, when the same two departments were already on orange. In short: orange means "dangerous weather is forecast", and residents are expected to keep track of how the situation develops.

What Météo-France advises

Under an orange alert for rain and flooding:

• stay away from rivers and low-lying ground; move to higher ground or an upper floor;
• do not drive or walk onto a flooded road, even one that is only partly under water;
• avoid travelling where possible;
• do not go down into basements or underground car parks;
• move belongings above water level and know where your emergency kit is.

Under an orange alert for thunderstorms: keep away from trees and water, shelter in a solid building, secure anything the wind could carry off, and avoid using your phone and electrical appliances where possible.

If you cannot get to work

Monday is a working day, and the orange alert starts in the middle of it. What the rules provide for employees is set out in the service-public guidance F17047, "Absence d'un salarié pour cause d'intempéries" (checked on 27 May 2026).

It is force majeure — but not paid time. The guidance describes the situation where bad weather (a storm, heavy snow and so on) prevents an employee from reaching work or arriving on time as force majeure. Even so, the employer is not obliged to pay for the time missed. Any deduction from salary must be strictly proportional to the time lost: on a 35-hour week (7 hours a day), a missed day means 7 hours deducted.

A collective agreement can be more generous. A convention collective or a company agreement may provide for pay to be maintained in such cases. Service-public offers a search tool to find yours by company name or SIRET number.

Alternatives to a deduction. To avoid docking pay, the employer may offer to:

• make up the hours on another day of the same week;
• take paid leave (congés payés);
• take RTT days, if the employee has them;
• use repos compensateur earned from overtime;
• work from home (télétravail).

If work stops for the whole workforce, the employer may also have the lost hours made up within the following 12 months, after informing the labour inspectorate, or apply for activité partielle (short-time working).

Construction has its own scheme. In the building and public works sector (BTP), the employer can stop a site when the weather makes work dangerous or impossible (after consulting the CSE, if there is one). Lost pay can then, under certain conditions, be covered by chômage-intempéries: at least 200 hours worked in BTP in the 2 months before the stoppage; at most 9 hours a day and 45 a week are covered, from the second hour lost in a week, up to 75% of salary; and no more than 55 days of compensation since 1 January of the year. The employer pays it on the usual pay date and is reimbursed by the caisse de congés payés. One important exception: someone who simply could not get to the site does not receive chômage-intempéries.

What this means in practice

• A common mistake is to assume that because bad weather is force majeure, the day will be paid. The general rules do not guarantee that; only a collective agreement can.
• The options listed above are offered by the employer. If your commute is long or runs through low-lying areas, it makes sense to discuss them in advance rather than on the morning of the alert.
• On Monday morning, check the map at vigilance.meteofrance.fr: the 6:00 update is the one to look at.
• School transport during an orange alert is a matter for the prefecture: on 7 October, for example, the Gard prefecture announced its suspension. Decisions are published on gard.gouv.fr and herault.gouv.fr.

All of this applies elsewhere too: the rules on weather-related absence are the same across France; only the trigger changes — a storm, snow or a downpour.