A little relief for the inhabitants of Pas-de-Calais. The department should experience a day without bad weather this Saturday, allowing us to observe the beginning of a recession on the rivers most at risk.
“The lull is in progress, it is expected until Sunday afternoon and allows us to observe a decline, upstream of the most reactive sections,” notes Vigicrues, a monitoring organization in a bulletin on Saturday.
Only the Aa, a river on which a peak is still expected during the day, was kept on red alert by Vigicrues. The Liane and the Canche, the cause of flooding for several days, have returned to orange vigilance.
However, a total of “247 municipalities are still affected by flooding”, sometimes in dramatic conditions, in particular around Saint-Omer, Boulogne, and Montreuil, underlined the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais in its 9:30 p.m. bulletin Friday.
“In some houses, the water has been stagnating for ten days”
“There are 10,000 victims, and in some houses, the water has been stagnating for ten days, soaking the walls,” senator and vice-president of the regional council, Franck Dhersin, told AFP.
And despite the lull over the weekend, the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu has already expressed his “concerns” about a new rainy episode at the start of next week.
The death toll is four minor injuries since Monday in the area, where nearly 350 firefighters take turns to ensure duty. They have carried out 1,531 interventions since November 2.
Five very large capacity pumps, each capable of emptying an Olympic swimming pool in 15 minutes, were deployed to try to limit flooding.
Rail traffic is interrupted on two sections (Boulogne-Etaples and Saint-Pol-Etaples) until Tuesday “in the morning”, indicated the SNCF on X (ex-Twitter). Nearly a hundred roads were also cut Friday evening, according to the prefecture.
The civil protection of Pas-de-Calais has launched a call for donations and set up a number (03.74.20.03.07) “to connect” disaster victims needing help clearing their homes with those ready to help them.
More than 50 municipalities have filed a file to be recognized as a natural disaster, a decision expected Tuesday.