The waterways of Pas-de-Calais having experienced historic floods in recent days should not experience a “decline before at least Friday”, estimated this Wednesday, the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, who is arrived on site. “It is likely that before the end of this day we will formalize the red vigilance on most of the waterways of Pas-de-Calais taking into account the weather forecasts,” he added.
While certain rivers experienced a partial decline, allowing the alert level to be lowered to orange on Tuesday afternoon, “this episode is not completely behind us”, underlined the Minister of Ecological Transition.
Three months of precipitation in one week in Pas-de-Calais
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, also on site, committed to quickly declaring a state of natural disaster for the municipalities of Pas-de-Calais and the Nord concerned so that “national solidarity can be achieved” . A commission is meeting for this purpose on November 14, he added.
He praised the “courage of our firefighters” who came from several departments “so that there was as little physical damage as possible, which is the case today”. Thanks to the FR-Alerte system for sending SMS messages to flooded areas, “we were able to save lives”, he said, welcoming “a human toll […] very reduced” without death or serious injury. “We must continue to be careful” with the rain which continues, he stressed, calling for “not to go near waterways, go upstairs when possible, unplug your devices electrical”.
In the space of 30 days, the equivalent of six months of precipitation fell on Pas-de-Calais, indicated Christophe Béchu, stressing that “the last week alone represented three months of precipitation”.