The distress of a couple affected after the floods in Pignans

They want to go back to their old house. The one they bought 14 years ago and fitted out over the years. Like dozens of families from Pignans (Var), Corinne and Dominique Vieuge, a couple in their fifties, were victims of severe hailstorm then floods that affected their village on August 24, 2021. The water rose to more than a meter in their garden and their villa and washed away everything in its path.

If three months after these floods, some victims are still waiting for the recognition of thestate of natural disaster to be able to receive their insurance benefits, it is another administrative problem that plagues the life of the Vieuge couple: the amount allocated by their insurance is currently blocked by the organization where they took out their mortgage.

Considerable damage to the house and garden

The family can therefore not begin the restoration work on their villa. And yet the damage is considerable, estimated at 150,000 € by the experts. In addition to humidity and mold, some partitions have gaping holes. All the walls are damaged, the baseboards have been torn off, there is no more electricity in the rooms. The sight is just as distressing outside the house: fences blown away, the wall on the floor and the tiling of the terrace ripped open.

“We have lost 14 years of our life. We have to start from scratch and try to rebuild ourselves but it is very complicated since the work cannot start. Psychologically, it is hard. We even consulted a doctor because we didn “Couldn’t take any more. Luckily our brother-in-law gave us a new bedroom and bathroom away from the other rooms. It’s our cocoon.” _We close the door at night so as not to see the rest of the house_“ explains Dominique Vieuge.

The couple took a lawyer

To get out of this administrative imbroglio and quickly renovate their house, the couple hired a lawyer: “It is expensive but we have no choice., we want to get our money for resume the normal course of our life and try to forget “. Forget this August 24, 2021 and those 3 hours of thunderstorm that they spent, kneeling, on the kitchen table watching the water rise. “We saw each other go…” says Corinne Vieuge very moved.