Gérald Darmanin announces “an accelerated natural disaster recognition procedure”

After the magnitude 5.3 to 5.8 earthquake recorded this Friday evening
on the border between Deux-Sèvres and Charente-Maritime and a magnitude 5 aftershock overnight
Gérald Darmanin announces this Saturday on Twitter that“an accelerated natural disaster recognition procedure” will be triggered “given the intensity of the earthquake which struck the west of France”.

This procedure will allow “to take into account the potential structural damage that would have been caused”specifies the Minister of the Interior who testifies his “victim support”. Many homes are cracked in the town of La Laigne (Charente-Maritime), the most affected town. The inhabitants of these houses classified as “black” can no longer return there. In the departement, 135 public and private buildings were damaged by the earthquake, indicates the prefecture.

The earthquake was felt on Friday evening in the Sarthe
To La Rochelle
in Maine-et-Loire, in Poitou
in Bordeaux, in Mayenne
in Brittany
, in Dordogne
In Loire-Atlantique and Vendée
, in Limousin
To Towers
but also to Paris.

“The Natural Disaster Procedure” will be triggered, also indicated Élisabeth Borne, in the wake of the announcement on Twitter by Gérald Darmanin. This procedure “will make it possible to recognize the situation of the buildings which may have been damaged as a result of this earthquake. It is a procedure which can therefore go very quickly to allow the mobilization of the people concerned”she said.

“The balance sheet is under control”, according to Elisabeth Borne

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne expressed “all (his) solidarity with the populations” this Saturday during a trip to Calvados. And to specify: “The balance sheet is under control, contained”.

“A dozen houses are no longer habitable and a few dozen are the subject of investigations to ensure that people can return to their homes”she clarified. “We will make sure that everyone has access to rehousing”added the Prime Minister.

Elisabeth Borne also announced that the Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, Christophe Béchu will be there on Monday.

Material damage and some minor injuries

“There is mainly material damage, there are only a few minor injuries” without specifying the exact number, assured this Saturday the spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior Camille Chaize on franceinfo
. Camille Chaize notably counts many “cracked buildings, some uninhabitable”. It indicates that the fire brigade intervened “more than a hundred times” overnight from Friday to Saturday.

As a precaution, “the gendarmes, the firefighters had to intervene in the night to allow shelter and relocate families while waiting for experts to pass through each of the dwellings” to check their condition.

In Deux-Sèvres, two people were slightly injured and 38 others relocated, indicates the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres. The evacuations took place in the municipalities of Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon, Saint-Hilaire-la Palud and Arçais.

In Charente-Maritime, 135 public and private buildings were damaged, indicates the prefecture, in a new point at 4:30 p.m. this Saturday. Of these 135 buildings, “71 are considered uninhabitable due to the structural risks they present.”

AT La Laine
, a village of 500 inhabitants in Charente-Maritime, a hundred houses are now “uninhabitable”. According to franceinfo, the firefighters will stay at least until Monday morning in La Laigne. They visit all the buildings and classify them according to their level of degradation. The most cracked dwellings are around the church of the town, whose bell tower is in danger of collapsing. The inhabitants of these listed houses “black” can’t go back there. They were only able to pick up a few things, accompanied by the firefighters. The inhabitants of the surrounding municipalities are called upon to go to La Laigne, where the firefighters’ PC is located, to declare their disaster.

According to the prefect of Charente-Maritime, the hundreds of evacuees have found a temporary rehousing solution by their own means. The challenge now is to propose “more sustainable solutions while waiting for their accommodation to be made safe”, explains Nicolas Basselier.

Enedis restored electricity this Saturday morning to all households that were deprived of it.

In mainland France, the last earthquake with a magnitude greater than 5 dates from 2019 in Ardèche, in the town of Teil. But in the west, we have to go back to 1972 in Oléron.