The association’s volunteers are stepping up their interventions to help residents of towns affected by floods. One of their missions: pumping water from flooded basements.
“Did you have any in the house?” “Yes and you ?” If we have to speak a little loudly, Thursday January 4 in Wizernes (Pas-de-Calais), it is because the sound of the pumps buzzes throughout the small town. During the morning, the water level still reached 2.90 meters under the bridge leading to the paper mill. The department is still placed on red alert but the slow decline of the Aa, despite everything, has begun. It’s time to assess the damage and empty the submerged basements. A van has just parked in Rue du Foyer. While the wounds are still raw, Civil Protection volunteers play a valuable role among the population.
This time, they responded to the call of Francine Heduy, 87 years old. The former hairdresser tries to smile, but she is still stunned by the loss of her new boiler, drowned in the cellar. Sevan Rigaux is kneeling in the street, working on a pump. “There is a strainer at the end of the pipe so as not to suck up all the dirt, and we pulled a pipe which will empty into the sewer over there. Of course, we checked it beforehand, to do not flood other parts of the street.” The 17-year-old volunteer recites his score and begins a long day of interventions.
Basements submerged again
When the pump starts to purr, he primes it by emptying a bottle of water. A little later, the cellar regained its former appearance, and the freezer that was installed there stopped floating. It will take another hour to empty the room. But underground, water comes from all sides. “I have two bad newsfinally announces to the octogenarian Maxime Cailliet, also a volunteer. I can no longer close the window and there is still infiltration.” Hearing these last words, Francine Heduy begins to wobble, before collapsing in her chair. “My boiler, my boiler”, she repeats again. The old lady wanted so much to stay at home, after having been housed for five weeks with her daughter, during the last flood in November.
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The scene inevitably touches Sevan Rigaux, who himself was forced to leave the family home de Frencq in November, because it was uninhabitable. And if the insurance companies will cover the electrical work in his house, estimated at around 7,500 euros, they will not replace his boiler, which was more than 10 years old. After having benefited from the help of Civil Protection himself, the high school student chose to become a volunteer for “get people out of trouble”.
This Thursday, he has already been on call for 72 hours. At the start of the week, he even found himself installing protective barriers in his own neighborhood, among his neighbors. This was not enough to prevent a new flood.
“We need young people who want to help. It’s also a pleasure to do it.”
Sevan Rigaux, 17 years old, Civil Protection volunteerat franceinfo
A little further down the street, it is not uncommon to see small yellow or blue pipes coming out of houses. After the previous flood, many residents chose to acquire their own pumping equipment. This investment is now necessary, believes Thierry Demol, who manages the driving school. “We are going to have more, floods, the soils are waterlogged.” But you still need to have the means to make such a purchase. This resident paid 720 euros to invest in a generator and a booster – a type of water pump. At midday, he had already emptied his cellar and was now tackling the garden, which communicates with two other plots of land.
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Residents who do not have a solution can contact Civil Protection directly. Their calls were all handled at the coordination center in Berck, 90 kilometers away. In Pas-de-Calais, three crews are specially dedicated to floods. The system will be reinforced in the coming days. Because there is no shortage of work. Aurélien Grare, the director of Civil Protection, has his eyes glued to the Vigicrues site, to its Argos software and to the department map. “The goal is for the victims to call us directlyhe explains. This unclogs the town hall lines, which can use this time to do something else.”
“We have been receiving more applications since the floods, and calls to help.”
Aurélien Grare, head of the Pas-de-Calais Civil Protection platformat franceinfo
Elise Defrance, a civic service volunteer, picks up the phone. At the other end of the phone, a woman explains that her cellar is flooded with 1.20m of water. The volunteer asks for a description of the incident and assesses the possible presence of hydrocarbons. She is also looking to see if the street is still flooded, in which case it would be too early to pump. Thursday, it was still too early in all the municipalities located further downstream of the Aa.
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In Wizernes, another disaster victim, Hervé Cristo, calls in turn and answers the same questions. This man from Nièvre came to spend vacation with his son. The day before, the water stopped a few millimeters before entering the house. A small pump recently acquired ran all night in the flooded cellar, perhaps saving the house.
“At Protec’, we don’t count our hours”
But with 1.50 m of water to pump, the makeshift device is no match. “The bottles of wine, after the first flood, had been taken upstairs”says Hervé Cristo, as one of the machines capable of pumping 30 m3 per hour, set up by the volunteers, begins to turn.
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The capabilities of Civil Protection, however, remain much more modest than those of the Civil Security soldiers. At the departmental level, Intensive pumping means began to be deployed on Thursday, with the installation of four pumps in the Mardyck sector (North), with a total capacity of 20,000 cubic meters per hour. Eight more pumps are being installed, thanks to the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism.
But since it will be necessary to pump for a long time, and almost everywhere, the three volunteers are already leaving for a new evacuation, while night will soon fall. “At Protec’, we don’t count our hours.”