” We will be there. » While Pas-de-Calais was again placed, this Tuesday, on orange “flood and rain-flood” vigilance, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, went to the bedside of the inhabitants of Saint-Omer and from Blendecques. In this sector of western Pas-de-Calais, bad weather has been wreaking havoc since November 6, with multiple river floods following the terrible storm Ciaran. To desperate individuals, disappointed professionals and overwhelmed elected officials, the Head of State reaffirmed the “support of the entire Nation” and promised aid in the millions.
It was by helicopter and accompanied by his wife and, in particular, the Minister of Agriculture, that Emmanuel Macron landed, shortly before noon, in Saint-Omer. In the town’s sports hall, the President of the Republic praised the work of the emergency services, on war footing for more than eight days, as well as that of the equally mobilized local elected officials. But the Head of State did not come only with handshakes, he assured the mayors of the 214 municipalities of the department having requested their classification in a state of natural disaster that their requests would be effective “as of this afternoon “.
A fund of 50 million for communities
A relief for the inhabitants of these municipalities who will be able to quickly take steps with insurers to obtain compensation. The president of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, added that the region and the department would cover the “natural disaster franchise of 380 euros”, so that residents were not penalized by this expense. To the head of the department, Jean-Claude Leroy, who deplored a reconstruction cost exceeding the annual budget of certain municipalities, Emmanuel Macron promised “an emergency support fund of 50 million euros for communities”. The Head of State specified that this fund would be “scalable depending on the situation” and that it would be used to “deal with the first expenses” caused by the bad weather.
In Blendecques, Emmanuel Macron went to meet farmers in the Audomarois marsh, particularly impacted by rising water levels. “We will be there, and for the long term,” he told them. The “agricultural disaster” system will be reactivated for farmers in Hauts-de-France, Normandy and Brittany, affected by the latest storms. This system will also be supplemented by the establishment of “an exceptional support fund” in order to support the investments of affected farmers.
Reassured about the restoration of their work tools, the market gardeners of the marsh still questioned the Head of State about the future. “We need a real campaign to clean the waterways,” insisted one of them. A request heard by Emmanuel Macron, who recognized “that the system of cleaning and maintaining waterways is no longer suitable”. The president promised to “deeply simplify” regulations that were “too heavy” to quickly resume “cleaning and limit this type of damage”. The mayor of Saint-Omer will also be in charge of leading a reflection “to improve the systems for evacuating waterways towards the sea” or any other system allowing “to avoid the basin effect”.
The head of state left, at the same time as the orange rain vigilance was lifted. On the other hand, Météo-France maintains high orange vigilance for the day of Wednesday in Pas-de-Calais and the North. For its part, Vigicrues has raised the alert level for the Liane River, back to red. “The peak is expected at the end of the afternoon upstream at Wirwignes, and during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday downstream at Isques,” the organization predicts. Vigicrues estimates that this new flood will be “similar or even greater than the events of last week”.