a hamlet cut off from the world in Cantal

Following a huge landslide which swept away a municipal road, the small village of Carlat in Cantal, 400 inhabitants, had to launch emergency work this Saturday March 9. To provide access to a small hamlet which found itself isolated, an excavator is opening a temporary road.

It is a scar around thirty meters wide which created discord in Carlat, a small village in Cantal. 3 days ago, on March 6, huge blocks of rock broke away from this hill. The landslide swept away the municipal road. In an emergency, a temporary path of more than a kilometer must be opened to reach this hamlet, isolated since Wednesday. “We will not be able to reopen the old road straight away. The part that has collapsed, we cannot intervene on it. We had to open an emergency route to allow access to the hamlet and for emergency services to access it.”explains Yves Alexandre, mayor (SE) of Carlat.

A relief for Christian Altayrac. Just before the road collapsed, he managed to leave the hamlet. “I was able to pass but the next day, I had a gap of 3-4 meters. You have to see it to believe it ! In a few months I hope everything will work out. We are actually powerless”, declares Christian Altayrac. Within a few weeks, the temporary road should be paved to allow easier passage for 4x4s. “It has to move forward very quickly because where am I going? What do I do ? My house cannot remain uninhabited forever, everything is falling apart. »

A few hundred meters from the hamlet, rebuilding the road swept away by the slide looks like a titanic job. “We are in a very delicate situation, as a small town, to deal with the restoration of a structure such as this. There is nothing left there. We will have to redo everything, here or elsewhere,” regrets Mayor Yves Alexandre. It is still impossible to quantify the amount of work. For the mayor, it will take many months for his small town to regain its face.