“Things are getting better and we are in the process of cleaning up and seeing the damage,” confides the mayor of Bélâbre affected by flooding

“Things are getting better and we are in the process of cleaning up and seeing the damage, the river has returned to its bed and the teams have spent time visiting the residents”, reacted Sunday March 31 Laurent Laroche, mayor of Bélâbre in Indre in orange flood vigilance. In this town located about fifty kilometers from Châteauroux, the equivalent of a month and a half of rain fell. The Anglin river had overflowed after these heavy rains in Bélâbre where a thousand inhabitants live.

What happened “It’s quite rare and I was able to realize the scale of the disaster, water up to 1m50, 1m80 in the houses, people who lost everything, household appliances, beds, nothing left to live on on a daily basis. There are houses that must be completely emptied. It’s quite impressive”recognizes Laurent Laroche.

“From Tuesday I will ask the prefect of Indre to classify my municipality in a state of natural disaster and to speed up the procedures which are sometimes a little long with the insurers.”

Laurent Laroche, mayor of Bélâbre

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NOW, “we have to manage this post-disaster, I have never seen that, we have to go back to 1908 to find a significant flood greater than this, it is really a major disaster”he added. “I would like the prefecture to set up a commission which will allow us to improve or, for some, better draft their municipal protection plans. We must prepare better, even if today we do not report any victims thanks to the effectiveness of the emergency services, of the municipal team in trying to rehouse people”.