(Saint-Étienne-au-Mont) A lull of uncertain duration is taking shape on Wednesday in Pas-de-Calais, subjected for days to exceptional bad weather and again on Tuesday to torrential rains, the inhabitants, at the end of their strength, already fearing the next flood.
This lull “could last at least until Thursday, despite some low-intensity showers recorded in Montreuillois,” notes the prefecture at midday.
The department has been experiencing torrential rains and floods for ten days.
“For the fourth time in two weeks, we took on water: the first time, we took 30 cm, the second 40, the third 70, and there we estimate that it is 15 cm”, lists fatalistically , Erwan Outtier, 21, came to see the damage in the digital printing company where he works, in Saint-Léonard, near Boulogne-sur-Mer. He waits for the water to go down to try again to dry the machines and restart them.
Placed on red alert for floods late Tuesday afternoon, the department, known for its vast areas of marshes, returned to orange alert on Wednesday morning, like the North.
According to Vigicrues, the Liane continues to experience very significant flooding, as well as the Aa, the Canche and the downstream of the Lys. A “very significant” flood and even “greater than that of last week” is also spreading on the Hem.
In the Alps, Haute-Savoie spent the night on red alert for the Arve, but returned to orange on Wednesday morning.
” Lost everything ”
PHOTO CHARLES CABY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The town of Saint-Étienne-au-Mont (Pas-de-Calais), crossed by the Liane, was flooded again Tuesday evening. A mudslide destroyed the surrounding wall of a house and formed a crater.
In the neighboring town of Saint-Léonard, “people have lost everything,” reports mayor Gwenaëlle Loire. Dressed in an orange vest, she chats with retirees who have taken refuge on the upper floor of their house.
“There was up to 1.50 m of water in the houses, it’s unprecedented, it’s unheard of” and “the aftermath will be very complicated, because houses will become unsanitary”, continues the elected official, who already says she knows that “residents are going to leave Saint-Léonard”.
“The situation is starting to be a little “less worse”, we are starting to enter the aftermath, which is not the easiest, the insurance companies are arriving”, adds the departmental president of the Red Cross, Fabienne Berquier. For her, the big challenge now consists of finding lasting rehousing solutions for disaster victims who will not be able to return home.
In Hames-Boucres, near Calais, Lynda Malfoy’s house has been flooded since the end of last week. “The insurance paid for the hotel for five days, but now we are renting an Airbnb until the end of the month, at our expense,” explains this mother of two children.
An aerial view of the outskirts of the village reveals flooded fields from which clumps of trees emerge.
Natural disaster
The recognition in a state of natural disaster of 181 municipalities in Pas-de-Calais and 24 in the North was published on Wednesday in the Official Journal.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS LO PRESTI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
While traveling in the department on Tuesday, the Head of State announced the release of a “support fund” of 50 million euros for the affected communities.
For farmers who suffered floods in Hauts-de-France, but also in Brittany and Normandy, another fund, of 80 million, must be activated.
“It will not be enough”, estimated on France Bleu Nord the PS president of Pas-de-Calais, Jean-Claude Leroy, specifying that the department had for its part “provisioned 10 million”. “But again, that won’t be enough. »
A sign of relative optimism, schools in the affected areas are gradually reopening on Wednesday, after two days of closure. Only one college near Béthune has not reopened, but some establishments welcome few students, because school transport remains very disrupted, according to the prefecture.
Since November 6, around 1,400 people have been evacuated because of these floods, exceptional in their duration and intensity.
Although they constitute natural phenomena, floods, cyclones and droughts can be amplified by global warming generated by human activities.
Mr. Leroy also called on Wednesday to replant hedges and think about the impact of land artificialization on the effects of water runoff.