Torrential rain has forced French rescuers to evacuate some 1600 people, most of them campers, from parts of southern France.
At least one person, a 70-year-old man, is missing after flash flooding hit campsites on Thursday.
The worst hit areas are Gard, Ardèche and Drôme.
Officials said more than 400 firefighters and police - and four helicopters - have been deployed to the regions.
The severe weather comes after the south of France and much of Europe has experienced a heatwave with unusually high temperatures.
Floodwaters turned the Ceze and L'Ardeche rivers into churning waterways that quickly spilled out of their banks.
Nearby regions - all part of the verdant and mountainous Cevennes - also were hit with flooding.
The missing man, from Germany, was a monitor at one of the campsites who was feared to have been swept away by flood waters along with his van, BFM-TV reported.
A search is under way for him, the Associated Press reports.
However, Dousset, the top aide of the Gard administration, said no one knew for certain yet that the man was in his van at the time.
The Gard administration also said four German children were hospitalised on Thursday for hypothermia in Bagnols-sur-Ceze, a town on the Ceze River.
They were among 10 people hospitalised with minor injuries, the Gard Gendarmerie said on its Facebook page.
The mayor of Bagnols, Jean-Yves Chapelet, told BFM TV many Dutch tourists were among the 350 campers evacuated in the town.
Authorities also said 119 children in nearby Saint-Julien-de-Peyrolas were sent to an emergency shelter.
Hundreds of firefighters, many sent in from other regions, helped in the evacuations, using helicopters to spot campsites and occasionally to perform rescues.
Numerous roads in the area remained cut off as night fell.
Reporting by Associated Press.
