Legend has it that the Brocéliande forest is full of fairies and mystical beings that children love to run after. Since the passage of storm Ciaran and then Domingos, the most sought-after fairy is called electricity. Badly damaged by violent winds exceeding 160 km/h and by torrential rains, Morbihan saw some of its inhabitants live in the dark for several days. At the height of the storm, up to 200,000 homes were without power, often due to trees falling on power lines. Since Thursday, November 2 and the passage of Ciaran, Enedis agents, farmers and municipal services have been working hard to try to restore access and networks, in order to bring light back to all homes. A work that promises to be a long time. This Monday, 20 minutes walked the small country roads of the department to meet those who have had a rare experience: spending four days in the dark.
After parking her car in front of her house, Marjorie tells us about this strange weekend spent with her partner in Forges-de-Lanoué, one of the towns most affected by power cuts. “The power was cut during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. We were sleeping so we didn’t notice anything. It was when we got up that we saw that nothing was working anymore.” To cope, Marjorie took her camping gear out of the garage: a gas stove and some battery-powered lamps. “That’s when I realized how hyper-connected we had become. We no longer had a network, no more telephone, no more internet, no more TV. To find out what was going on, I had to go in the car to listen to the radio.”
Without a telephone, the nurse could not be contacted. For several days, she continued her rounds with the ambition of caring for but also reassuring the oldest residents. Because in this small rural town located near Josselin, the return to normal only took place on Sunday. “We couldn’t open Thursday and Friday because there was nothing,” testifies one of the women working in the village’s childminder house. “When we returned Saturday evening, we saw that the house was lit. We were so happy! But it happened again during the night. And then it came again on Sunday,” says Marjorie. Not everyone is so lucky. Monday morning, 81,000 homes were still without electricity in Brittany, including 14,000 in Morbihan. The two storms generated “three times more” power outages than during the legendary storm of 1999.
Philippe is a farmer in the same town. Like him, many farmers had to cope with this long power cut by running generators on board their tractors. “We bought this after the storm of 1999. We had a lot of trouble. There, at least, we didn’t lose anything,” he told us as he went to buy his cigarettes at the local café. The soon-to-be retired farmer, like many others, helped clear the roads, lending a hand to clear the trees. “There was a huge chestnut tree that had lain down on the cables. We were able to free him to allow them to intervene. Here, a lot of people mobilized.” As throughout the region, municipalities have opened premises to allow residents to warm up, shower or recharge their electronic devices.
To cope with the lack of electricity, most residents resorted to system D. For lighting, Jacques assembled a few candles in the middle of a plate and lit a fire in his stove to warm up. “It sure feels weird. Saturday evening, I was at the stake at 7 p.m. because I didn’t know what to do anymore. I had already read Le Canard Enchaîné several times, there was no network and my cell phone was dead,” says this 72-year-old man. In his hamlet of Bas Penhoët, in Pleugriffet, the wind brought down several trees. “When I wanted to go shopping, I saw that there was a huge lime tree across the road. I was like cut off from the world! “. The retiree from Burgundy came home to get his chainsaw and began to cut up the carcass of the tree to clear the road. Living alone, he admits to having found the time long during these four days without electricity. “When it came back, I was very happy! I rushed down the stairs to reconnect everything. But it came back.” The power finally came back for good on Sunday. But not the telephone network. “Every time I leave the house, I receive all the notifications at once,” explains the talkative retired person, before elaborating. “The thing that bothered me the most was having to throw out my entire fridge and freezer.”
Fabienne experienced the same misadventure. Owner of the Pleugriffet grocery store, she had no choice but to throw away everything she had. “Enedis installed a generator on Friday but it was already too late. We had to balance everything from fresh to frozen with my husband. When I think that there are people who struggle to eat, it makes me want to cry.” Fabienne estimates that she lost 4,000 to 5,000 euros in provisions. “I took photos of everything and I did all the price readings to send it to the insurance companies,” says the owner of the village grocery store. In front of the school located just opposite, a small sign indicates that after-school reception will take place in the sports hall “due to numerous power cuts”.
On the side of the winding roads in this area very close to Côtes-d’Armor, we regularly come across fallen branches or fallen trees, the scars of which are still clearly visible. But we are far from an apocalyptic landscape which would have plunged an entire territory into darkness. The damage is also quite limited, apart from a few blown-off sheet metal roofs. “More than 90% of homes have been reconnected,” assures Enedis, which mobilized 3,400 agents throughout France to deal with the damage from the two successive storms. Saturday evening, a Gers agent who came as reinforcement died, electrocuted while intervening in Pont-Aven, in Finistère. ” It’s very sad. Many have talked about it here,” recognizes the owner of the Forges-de-Lanoué tobacco bar.