On Tuesday, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, announced the possibility that the State would buy back certain homes damaged during the two episodes of record flooding in Pas-de-Calais, in November and January.
The municipalities affected by the second episode of flooding and which had not already been classified as a natural disaster received, this Wednesday, the decree which will allow the victims to begin compensation procedures with their insurance companies.
A ceiling set at 240,000 euros
The prefect must “specify the conditions” allowing residents whose house has suffered damage exceeding “half the market value” to benefit from a “purchase scheme within the framework of the Barnier fund”, indicated Christophe Béchu.
Some residents, exhausted by floods which sometimes lasted several weeks, had called for such measures. They rely on precedents such as the deconstruction of hundreds of houses in Vendée and Charente-Maritime following the storm Xynthia in 2010, after compensation from the major natural risks prevention fund (FPRNM) known as the “Barnier fund”.
Eligible owners will be able to benefit from an “automatic repurchase by the State up to 240,0000 euros”, specified the minister. An “amicable buyout” may also be requested by owners whose accommodation has been less damaged. But in an emergency, and faced with the lack of local rehousing solutions, he also announced the installation of around “a hundred mobile homes”, financed by a housing assistance fund.
“In the coming months, we will have to rethink the maps with flood risks,” he warned, referring to the need to rethink water governance, acquire pumps and “fight to avoid urban sprawl. In the meantime, the French state pumps, sent as reinforcements to this polder zone, will be kept on site “as long as necessary”, added the minister.