(Bourthes) A month and a half after a historic episode of flooding in Pas-de-Calais, rivers in northern France overflowed again on Tuesday, the rains falling on still saturated soils, putting the nerves of residents under severe strain.
In Bourthes, a village in Pas-de-Calais crossed by the Aa, residents looked with concern on Tuesday morning at the brown water which had invaded the main street, sometimes rising up to knee height and licking doorsteps.
Perched on a tractor lent by neighbors, Roland Coeugnet comes to collect some things from his house before going to take refuge with his son. “I hope that this time, it will not go so high, because we had to make purchases again” since the previous flood, confides the retiree.
“We are powerless in the face of movements like that,” but with waterlogged soils, “as soon as it rains 30 mm, each time, we are underwater,” adds another resident, David Merlot, truck driver.
In Pas-de-Calais, on orange alert for floods since Sunday, firefighters had to carry out seven evacuations Tuesday morning, according to a report from the prefecture.
In Rebecques, a campsite which accommodates around fifty people all year round was flooded, and 17 people were sheltered in a village hall.
Gaëtane Willot, 49, has lived at the campsite with her husband and three children for two and a half years. Sheltered in the village hall, she is quite serene, because her mobile house, unlike the houses in the villages, is raised by its wheels.
A few weeks ago, the family had already been evacuated, with the help of the Red Cross.
This time, from Monday evening, the owners of the campsite “loaded the truck with inflatable mattresses and pillows”, says the manager, Jérôme Leal. Tuesday morning, “around 9 a.m., in a quarter of an hour, everyone was gone.”
In the surrounding area, waterlogged pastures overflow onto the road.
“The same scenario”
Liane, Hem, Aa, Canche, Lys, Laquette… most of the rivers in Pas-de-Calais and some in the Nord department have been classified as orange flood alert.
Pas-de-Calais is also placed in orange for rain-flooding, just like six other departments in the west of the country.
The disturbance crossing the north of France is accompanied by “continuous light to moderate but above all lasting rain” and occurs “in a sensitive hydrological context” notes Météo-France.
In November, nearly three weeks of flooding in Pas-de-Calais caused five minor injuries and significant damage, affecting thousands of homes, sometimes flooded several times a few days apart, but also farms, shops and businesses.
“Residents are afraid of reliving the same scenario as two months ago,” summarizes Philippe Macrel, deputy mayor of Neuville-sous-Montreuil.
By mid-morning, only one entrance to his village remained passable by car. “When we see the rise in water since yesterday [lundi]it’s impressive,” testifies the chosen one, immersed almost to the top of his boots.
Over the entire episode, cumulative rainfall could reach “20 to 40 mm”, and very locally exceed 40 mm, according to Météo-France.
Among the sectors affected by the highest accumulations, those in the interior of Pas-de-Calais already affected in November: Montreuillois, heights of Boulonnais and Artois.
“We pump to limit the damage and if the river [la Dordonne] stay where she is currently, it’s going to be fine, but it’s not won, she’s stuck and it’s a few centimeters away,” worries Maxime Delianne, a sheep breeder in Maresville, near Montreuil-sur-Mer. .
“I have 200 ewes which each have one or two lambs, it’s impossible to evacuate,” laments the breeder.