“Some have been there for generations. I was born there in 1989. It is a place very dear to our hearts and we are going to fight”. For Pra, Camille Grenier and his family are ready to organize the “resistance”. In the Tinée valley, in the depths of the Alpes-Maritimes, this hamlet of about ten buildings with church, bread oven and laundry, attached to the town of Saint-Dalmas-le-Selvage, is destined to disappear.
Since the publication of a municipal decree on August 17, it is forbidden to “evolve” and “live” there. For the authorities, two years later the storm Alex, which had raged in the department, causing the death of eighteen people, the place became too dangerous. Threatened by flooding from the Salso Moreno, which borders the hamlet to the west, and rockfalls from the slope overlooking it to the east, the Pra is exposed to “natural risks […] now recurrent”, supports the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes. He must be evacuated.
For their part, the owners of the houses, who live there only part of the year, have no intention of leaving them. According to them, the storm Alex would have precipitated everything. “The State would be afraid of new disasters, but it is necessary to play down”, estimates Benoît Grenier, the father of Camille, owner of the restaurant Le Pratois, an institution in the sector. They assure that inexpensive works would make it possible to protect them. After the creation of an Association for the preservation of Pra, at the beginning of September, they will launch a petition this Saturday on the website change.org.
“There is no efficient parry or protection”
For its diagnosis, the prefecture says it relies on “recent studies”, which have “confirmed the vulnerability of the hamlet to the risks of flooding, torrential floods and landslides”. She recalls that “two blocks of 3 and 4 m3 rolled down the slope, including one to the road, near the hamlet” one night last April, that three vehicles were swept away by flows on August 17 and that the Bonette road, which runs along the Pra, had also been cut following a storm on the night of August 18. And “there is no efficient parry or protection”.
“We are told that the only alternative is the Barnier fund [qui permet de financer les indemnités d’expropriation de biens exposés à un risque naturel majeur] whereas it would suffice to create a dyke on the watercourse. For 200,000 euros, we would be protected, assures Benoît Grenier. This is nothing compared to the tens of millions that have been invested elsewhere in the valleys after Storm Alex. »
“I am very afraid that it could create a precedent and that other small municipalities will be sacrificed”
The Salso Moreno, which had already caused major flooding in past centuries, would not be the major risk, according to the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis, which has jurisdiction. “It would be useless to intervene on the river, a study by the RTM [Restauration des terrains en montagne] clearly proved it. The problem comes from the landslide. The work would be too important to carry out and not sustainable due to the rapid evolution of the slope, ”says the community.
A diagnosis which the owners are unable to resolve, despite a consultation meeting held a few days ago. “It would be heartbreaking to lose the Pra. The hamlet has been inhabited since the 15th century. It’s a piece of history. Efforts have recently been made to develop it. We were only connected to the networks in the 1990s. Before that, we had generators to run the appliances in the restaurant kitchen,” says Benoît Grenier. “Today, we even have the Internet. Only the mobile is still going badly, ”he smiles.
“It’s not just a question of a dozen individual destinies. We are mobilizing for our hamlet but not only, adds his son. Personally, I’m very afraid that it could set a precedent and that other small municipalities will be sacrificed, as soon as there are a little too many risks and there is not enough political will to preserve them. . The prefecture told them that a new meeting would be held in November.