“Work has been done. They cost money. But, in the end, what was all this for? Temporary is enough. » Eliane Guigo’s smile tightens, like her hands on the handles of her shopping bag. The retiree, who came as best she could to do her shopping in Saint-Martin-Vésubie on Wednesday morning, is “angry”. This resident of Venanson explains that she had to abandon her car a little higher up and walk more than thirty minutes, sometimes in slush, to get there.
This is because his very small village (173 souls at the last census), although very close, was once again cut off from the world on Friday. The Boréon, swollen by the torrential rains of the Aline depression, destroyed the access. A new time. “Three years ago, the bridge was already gone. There, all the areas around the passage that they had recreated in the meantime were washed away. And next time, what will it be? », she worries.
A text to (finally) speed things up
In the afternoon, the metropolis finally announced the reopening of RM 31 via a dirt road. Temporary, for the moment, it should be “tarred by the end of the week”, promises the community. But already, it allows you to reach the new bridge – also temporary – of Venanson, installed after storm Alex and the disappearance of the original structure, swallowed by the waves this evening in October 2020. This structure metallic overhanging water that was still lively and very muddy, six days after the red alert. “But we need lasting constructions that protect us. Solid, finally, insists Eliane Guigo. Especially with global warming, these Mediterranean episodes which threaten us are not about to stop. »
In this already battered valley, the new floods of last week have revived the anxieties, but also the impatience and annoyance of these inhabitants suspended in the fear of a next flood. The same images of devastating torrents. The roads still torn up. The replacement installations, (still) temporary three years later, which did not hold up. Emmanuel Macron nevertheless recalled on October 3, on the social network On site, however, the accounts are not there. A certain “fed up”, between “anger” or “resignation”, resonates. Public authorities and “administrative slowness” are singled out.
But storm Aline may have helped to (finally) change the situation. After the visit of the Minister of Ecological Transition on Monday, who promised to bring forward the date of the next “reconstruction council”, the new prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes signed on Wednesday afternoon an “decree recognizing the urgency of the work ” to bring. The text allows, according to state services, “to mobilize all regulatory tools by overcoming restrictive administrative barriers”. In short, to make it easier. And therefore faster.
Elected officials “angry” at having “wasted so much time”
“We have places ravaged and filled with pebbles on which we could not intervene because it was on the paper of classified wooded spaces. This decree will allow us to override all of this, ”says Ivan Mottet, questioned by 20 minutes. The LR mayor of Saint-Martin-Vésubie welcomes “good news” but also shows a certain “exhaustion”. “I am sorry that it took three years to get to this point and I am very angry that we lost so much time,” breathes the elected official.
On Saturday, the day after storm Aline, prefect Hugues Moutouh had already requisitioned five local construction companies to reconnect the villages. Its new text should make it possible to further accelerate the maneuver. He is unprecedented. And it plans to support the necessary measures to “immediately open up isolated communities and homes” and to “anticipate future episodes of heavy precipitation likely to be repeated due to climate change”.
The decree above all recognizes the “emergency nature” of “immediate work to restore the free flow of water and the restoration of structures which have suffered damage” but also of those “concerning definitive hydraulic protection works”. Definitive, the word is written in black and white in the communication from the prefecture. It’s the word on everyone’s lips in the valley. And it is the one that would allow the inhabitants of Vésubie to finally move on. Serenely. Without having to fear, with fear in your stomach, each new weather alert.
“We will still have to demand accountability”
“We will be able to effectively strengthen the banks and intervene in the river,” is also satisfied the SE mayor of Venanson. But Loetitia Loré remains perplexed. “It’s quite incredible that we only have this order today. Once the emergency work has passed, there will be a time when we will still have to demand accountability,” she says. The councilor, scalded by the past three years, also warns that elected officials will remain “extremely vigilant” to ensure that the construction sites are running smoothly.
At least as much as their citizens are on edge, some even considering themselves “left behind”. « Après la tempête Alex, les premiers travaux d’urgence se sont très bien passés. Water, electricity, etc. came back very quickly. At the time, we said “well done and thank you”. But for a year, a year and a half, nothing has happened, apart from small odds and ends for tourism. They explain to us that it’s because there are blockages at the state level,” says Yves, annoyed, on his walk between the village of Saint-Martin-Vésubie and his house, located on Route du Boréon.
In the viewfinder of this resident of the valley, the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis, which is responsible for certain road axes. So when Gaël Nofri, vice-president of the Transport and Mobility commission within the community, went there on Wednesday, his blood boiled. The tone is raised. “I understand this anger when, in three years, you are affected twice by such a serious event. And that in addition you have administrations that tell you that it’s long, says the elected official. But there are many explanations. » He mentions these “regulations” which the prefect’s order should allow to be put in parentheses but also the investigation launched by the Nice public prosecutor’s office for suspicions of “embezzlement” on certain construction sites, which were temporarily stopped. “People without faith or law, from what we know, saw a windfall effect,” points out the elected official, without further details, the investigations being ongoing.
“The fear of seeing the valley empty”
Des justifications qui ne trouvent qu’un écho limité dans les villages. Especially when the inhabitants are hit hard. Also crossed on the road to Vésubie, along the river, a well-filled shopping bag on her back, Josette had lost her house during the storm Alex: “I left with my hands in my pockets And when I came back, there was nothing left. On Friday, the septuagenarian was still evacuated from the HLM which she occupied a little higher in the village. This time, no damage in his accommodation, but a certain feeling of “resignation” and also pain.
“We nicknamed Saint-Martin-Vésubie La Petite Switzerland. Now, with the gray of the rocks and pebbles which has taken up a lot of space, the landscape is much less charming,” she regrets with “the fear of seeing the valley empty.” This is also what the village merchants fear. “The school holidays of All Saints’ Day began and yet we are only local, sighs Radhouane Khalfaoui. My wife holds the bakery and I the tobacco office. And it’s not easy on a daily basis. Mais, ça se comprend que les gens aient peur de monter. »
“We have been trying to do our best for three years. We fought. We also had Covid, the rise in raw materials, energy, the war. And we hoped that storm Alex was behind us. But here, we have the impression of going back to square one,” the tobacconist mutters again. He raises his head: “We still try to be positive and move forward. » The hopes of Vésubie are now based on the prefect’s order and the announced works. So that they come to fruition without delay.