REPORTAGE
His presence on the spot was expected. After two days of torrential rains, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner went Sunday in the devastated areas of the Var, before moving to the Alpes-Maritimes. Two departments where the bad weather have killed two and four missing, he said. But just arrived, the minister had to face the criticism of some elected.
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Thus, after briefly meeting some victims of the floods, Muy, Christophe Castaner was challenged by Françoise Dumont, president of the SDIS and Liliane Boyer, the mayor of the town. The two women insisted that a good part of the 230 helicopters in the Var were reserved for the rescue of people illegally installed in floodplain areas of the plain of Argens. "Travelers are settling in and acquiring land in flood-plains and installing caravans, which means that our firefighters now find themselves rescuing people at the risk of their lives", said Françoise Dumont, regretting that "we let people settle in areas in which they have nothing to do".
Castaner recognizes "unbearable anomalies"
"The procedures never succeed or so after a few years," added Mayor Liliane Boyer. "It's intolerable," she said, calling for justice "to do its job a little faster." "The other day, we saved fifteen people on the roof of a caravan in the flood zone."
"Your remarks are perfectly legitimate," said the former government spokesman. Recognizing "unbearable anomalies", he promised to look into the matter, asking the prefect to intervene with the mayors concerned.
"We have to go faster"
Another complaint: local elected representatives also denounced "administrative delays" and "environmental constraints" which slow down the work of prevention against floods. Invited by Wendy Bouchard, on Europe 1, the mayor of Mandelieu-La Napoule, Sébastien Leroy, thus lambasted "procedures plethoric and impressively inefficient". "We build files, we carry projects to national agencies, we go before commissions, we must have validations and funding from the State, and show constantly that our projects do not impact the environment, fauna and flora, "he lamented, before calling for" change of system "and that the latter" be managed at the local level. " "We have to go faster," he said again.
On the spot, while praising the elected officials for their reactivity, the Minister of the Interior considered that "the environmental dimension" can not be opposed to the anticipation of the risks. "The Var and Alpes-Maritimes, for example, these are departments that in a few years have doubled the surfaces that are waterproofed, so necessarily it has consequences," he said.
And promises to accelerate state recognition of natural disaster
To calm the spirits of elected officials and inhabitants, the minister also promised to accelerate the recognition of the state of natural disaster, a procedure to facilitate compensation, announcing the convening "as soon as possible" of the commission which will to pronounce on this state.
Christophe Castaner then congratulated the firefighters of the Var for their work, before flying over the flooded areas, then to go to the Alpes-Maritimes.