In Pas-de-Calais, caution remains in order with the announcement of more rain. The Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, went this Thursday morning to the bedside of the victims of Neuville-sous-Montreuil, a town in Pas-de-Calais located near the Canche, a river still on alert in raw orange .
In this town of 650 inhabitants, Jacqueline Fievez comes every day to see the damage in her house after the floods. “In the kitchen there was about 1.20 meters and in the garden more than two meters, I had to evacuate on the third day,” she says fatalistically, still wading through 80 centimeters of water.
New depression
“We are here in an emergency, but obviously we will be there for the restoration,” promised the Prime Minister, with her feet in the water, before being questioned by a baker whose business in the city neighboring Montreuil-sur-Mer was devastated.
“A few days after the visit of the President of the Republic, I wanted to come and meet the residents, the emergency services and the elected officials who have been on the bridge for several days in the face of these exceptional floods, to convey a message of solidarity and support”, also declared Élisabeth Borne who must, at the same time, go to Dunkirk, city of Housing Minister Patrice Vergriete, to make announcements on housing.
If the lull on Wednesday allowed a decline in several basins of the department according to Vigicrues, the concern is reinforced with the arrival of the depression, called Frederico, which circulates, this Thursday, “over the north of the country on an axis Brittany/Alsace”. The return of the rains “could cause further increases on the sections in vigilance”, warns Vigicrues, indicating that the Plaine de la Lys and the Canche were still the scene of “very significant” floods.
Around 1,400 people evacuated
After middle and high schools which gradually reopened on Wednesday, most of the 1,290 schools closed since Monday must reopen this Thursday, the prefecture announced. However, 21 schools will not be able to accommodate students and school transport remains very disrupted.
The drinking water supply is still subject to restrictions for 7,200 people in the Samer sector, a situation which is expected to last until the middle of next week, specifies the same source, adding that more than 500 homes are deprived of electricity and more than 4,000 private mobile phone subscribers.
For the departmental president of the Red Cross, Fabienne Berquier, “the main challenge now consists of finding lasting rehousing solutions for disaster victims who will not be able to return home”, in houses where there is “humidity up to 1.60 m, no more heating or electricity.” Since November 6, around 1,400 people have been evacuated because of these floods, exceptional in their duration and intensity.