IN PICTURES – Flood damage to the Merville nursing home in the North

Orange vigilance is over for Pas-de-Calais this Thursday. It only lasted a few hours. In the North, no vigilance but waterspouts still fell this Wednesday between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., in certain sectors in our two departments. Météo France predicted 60 millimeters of rain, the equivalent of three weeks of rain in an hour, an hour and a half.

In the North, in the Flandres-Lys sector, in Merville, about fifteen kilometers from Hazebrouck, it is downright an Ehpad: the Léon Duhamel establishment was flooded in the afternoon, around 5:30-6 p.m. This episode lasted three quarters of an hour and there was major damage to the ground floor.

The staff of the Ehpad, as well as a good part of the municipal team came to mop up. The floor still slips when you enter: on the floor brooms, mops. “Sheets, towels were put on the ground to prevent water from seeping in”, specifies Joël Duyck, the mayor of Merville. The chosen one made the rounds of the damage. When he was called, in the middle of the flood, he could hardly believe his eyes. “There were waterspouts everywhere, in the restaurant where some residents are helped to have their meals”. False ceilings have fallen to the ground, three bedrooms were flooded.

During the flood, it was necessary to reassure the residents, explains Dominique Deschilde, the director of the Ehpad. “We immediately thought of them, we had to explain to them what was happening”. With the elevator out of order, the firefighters carried several residents in wheelchairs to the first floor. They then pass a few hours to secure the buildingfirst the false ceilings, as well as the bedrooms.

Under the command of Lieutenant Magnié, the teams checked the condition of the roof. “If there is too much water, it stagnates, it accumulates, and it can cause the roof to collapse. So we evacuate the water in anticipation, and then, technically, there will be no more of risk”.

The intervention ended around 11 p.m.: once the balance sheet had been drawn up. As of this Thursday, the management of the Ehpad will contact your insurance, in order to be compensated. The mayor of Merville hopes that the departmental council and the ARS will finally take the subject of the roof to heart, and finance its renovation.