A MASSIVE clean-up is under way in the French pilgrimage town of Lourdes, famed for its Catholic sanctuaries, after flash floods forced the evacuation of some 450 pilgrims and closed the main shrine.
The waters from days of non-stop rain in the region had begun to recede on Sunday but the main places of worship remained closed to the public as firefighters pumped out water from a grotto and the basements of several hotels.
The cave, where Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, remained flooded, with debris like bits of wood, candles and branches floating on the surface.
An estimated six million pilgrims visit the shrine every year, drawn by its spring waters, which the devout believe can heal and even work miracles.
Thierry Castillo, the custodian of the sanctuaries, told AFP: "There have been floods in the past but this one has caused the most damage in the last 30 years."
It was a fresh blow for the sanctuaries, which had a million-euro hole last year in a 30 million euro ($A38 million) budget due to lower donations as a result of the eurozone debt crisis.
"We have serious damages which will run into hundreds of thousands of euros," Castillo said, adding that he hoped for "a mobilisation of donors".
Pope Benedict XVI evoked the flooding at a special mass on Sunday in the Vatican where he named seven new saints, saying: "Let us turn to the Virgin Mary with a thought for Lourdes, the victim of flash floods, which inundated the grotto where the Madonna had appeared."
Several areas in the town were inundated on Saturday as the river Gave de Pau burst its banks, leading to the closure of the main places of worship.
Buses ferried guests from all the hotels in the lower town to a conference centre and a sports complex on Saturday. Two campsites were also evacuated and several roads closed in Lourdes, home to 22 places of worship.
The water was around one metre deep in front of the grotto and 80 centimetres in the Avenue du Paradis, where most of the hotels for pilgrims are located.
On Sunday, the waters had receded from the streets but in many places left mud and slush up to 10 centimetres deep.
The body supervising the sanctuaries said a hydro-electricity unit providing power to the shrines had been badly damaged as well as two pedestrian walkways on the side of the river.
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