The death toll from surging floodwaters in southeastern France rose to five Wednesday, and rescuers helped evacuate thousands of people from damage or threatened homes.

Flooding began in earnest on Tuesday as rivers swollen from heavy rains jumped their banks and flooded towns and villages across the south, damaging roads and train tracks and forcing a halt to some travel.

Some 2,000 soldiers were brought in to help evacuate thousands of people, some via helicopters and rafts, and more were ready to move in if needed, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on LCI television. Some 7,600 people have been evacuated since flooding started Monday, LCI said.

A somber President Jacques Chirac briefly visited the storm-ravaged Bouches-du-Rhone before embarking on an official visit to Tunisia, across the Mediterranean.

"I want to think of the victims and those who have lost everything," Chirac told reporters after an hour-long visit to the rescue center in the village of Valabre, some 20 miles from Marseille. "They can count on the solidarity of the nation at this time, and afterward."

The government made an initial authorization of $14.4 million for emergency relief.

The bodies of two missing people were recovered on Wednesday, raising the death toll from three to five. A 53-year-old woman who disappeared Monday night in the Loire region, to the north, was found. The body of a man was found in Marseille.

The port city of Marseille and the surrounding Bouches-du-Rhone region were the hardest hit, and the government moved to declare it a disaster area. Two buildings in Marseille collapsed.

Montpellier, to the west, was all but isolated, hit with some 10.6 inches of rain since Tuesday night — reportedly half the annual precipitation. Train service was halted after tracks caved in near the station.

Even the retired aircraft carrier Clemenceau did not escape the bad weather. Thrashing about near Toulon where it was anchored, the vessel was pulled out to sea by a tug for safety reasons.

Two nuclear power plants were shut down Tuesday in the Ardeche region, and on Wednesday two more automatically shut down in the Drome.

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