(Saint-Omer) The level of several rivers rose on Tuesday afternoon in Pas-de-Calais, returning to red flood alert for the Liane, leading to new evacuations after more than ten days of exceptional flooding .
On site Tuesday at midday, President Emmanuel Macron announced the release of a “support fund” of 50 million euros intended to “support the most affected municipalities”. From a gymnasium in Saint-Omer, the president also presented an “exceptional support fund” for farmers.
The head of state stressed that the next few hours and the night would remain difficult and that the flood would take several days.
At 5:30 p.m., Météo-France placed Pas-de-Calais on red flood alert, due to the level of the Liane, then Haute-Savoie a few hours later, a department in which a “serious episode” is expected. of precipitation.
On the Liane, “an episode potentially greater than last week’s floods is possible” with the “very intense rains” in the afternoon, Météo-France warned. In the Hem basin, the new flood could also equal that of last week.
PHOTO AURELIEN MORISSARD, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Pas-de-Calais, which has already suffered storm Ciaran on November 2, record floods on November 7 and intense precipitation on Thursday and Friday, was placed on Tuesday on orange rain-flood alert until 4 p.m. by Météo- France.
At the start of the afternoon, on the outskirts of Saint-Omer, it was raining in torrents and portions of the roads were submerged again, noted an AFP journalist. In Boulonnais, streets in the town of Saint-Etienne-au-Mont were flooded again and mudslides destroyed the wall of a house.
“The night is going to be hot”
“The water is rising, the night is going to be hot,” worried the departmental president of the Red Cross, Fabienne Berquier, specifying that evacuations of houses were underway in this town around 7 p.m.
According to the prefecture, the heaviest showers will however evacuate in the evening “towards the northern basins close to Flanders” and a calm should then occur, with only “scattered showers during” the night.
She notes evacuations in the afternoon in several municipalities near Boulogne-sur-Mer and Saint-Omer and a situation which remains “complex” in Calaisis.
The Head of State indicated during his visit that the state of natural disaster would be recognized for 244 municipalities (214 in Pas-de-Calais, around thirty in the North), a first step towards compensation for the victims, already affected by the storm Ciaran on November 2, record floods on November 7 and intense precipitation on Thursday and Friday.
Insurance companies are committed to showing “very great responsiveness,” he said.
According to the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, Jacques Billant, 5,000 homes have been affected by these “exceptional” floods and “1,400 people evacuated” since November 6. The death toll remains “four lightly injured”.
The president also went to Blendecques, a town particularly affected by the floods, with 862 houses affected, but where some residents were able to return to their homes, according to Jean-Christophe Castelain, deputy mayor. “Many residents are at the end of their rope,” he says.
90 roads cut
Accompanied by several ministers, the Head of State announced that he had entrusted the mayor of Saint-Omer with a mission to improve the drainage systems from waterways to the sea, taking inspiration for example from the Netherlands.
PHOTO AURELIEN MORISSARD, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
President Emmanuel Macron in Le Doulac near Saint-Omer
Schools in 279 municipalities in the department remained closed Monday and Tuesday. Middle or high schools will be able to reopen on Wednesday, most primary and nursery schools being closed on Wednesday (four-day week) anyway. However, some establishments could remain inaccessible, warned the prefecture.
Tuesday evening, 90 roads were closed in the department.
In addition to the four lightly injured, a sixty-year-old woman was found dead on Saturday in Bailleul (North) in her damaged car in a flooded ditch, with no certain link to bad weather, according to the Dunkirk public prosecutor’s office.
Associations helping exiles on the coast have been denouncing for several days a “catastrophic” situation in Calais, calling for an increase in the number of emergency accommodation places and in particular the opening of a hangar, made available to migrants in the event of activation of the extreme cold plan.
Although they constitute natural phenomena, floods, cyclones and droughts can be amplified by global warming generated by human activities.