Without roads, without electricity and without drinking water ... Tende, in the Alpes-Maritimes, was hit hard by storm Alex.
Five days after the bad weather and after the damage was noticed, life resumed in the village, between immediate help and system D.
REPORTAGE
In Tende, when night falls, the noise of helicopters disappears, giving way to that of generators.
Five days after the severe bad weather from storm Alex which hit the town and the entire south-east of the country, only a few houses have regained electricity.
The village is now cut off from the world: to get there, you have to walk 25 kilometers on foot, along a road strewn with debris and branches.
The roads are out of service and two bridges were destroyed by the floods: the time to do the work, Tende will be isolated again "at least two months" explained in
Le Parisien
Jean-Aimé Mougenot, regional director TER.
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"We record the people who must be evacuated as a priority by helicopters"
In the streets, we meet residents holding in their hands jerry cans of water filled with tankers from the town hall.
The drinking water network has not been put back in place either: the water arrives by helicopter.
Like food, everything is distributed to the village hall, where life in the town has been organized since Saturday.
“Everyone has to go through here”, explains the mayor of the city, Jean-Pierre Vassallo, at the microphone of Europe 1. “We distribute water and food. We provide psychological support and we records the people who must be evacuated as a priority by helicopters, "continues the elected official.
Free meals for firefighters and rescue teams
It is also in this village hall that firefighters and rescue teams come to eat, meals prepared free of charge by the town's restaurateurs who take turns to cook with the means at hand.
"People bring us their food which is thawed or which is still frozen, which they will not be able to keep, so that we can cook them and then redistribute them", says Coralie, the owner of the restaurant Le Miramonti.
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At the same time, since Monday, supplies and helicopters are much more regular.
But not yet enough to forget the bitter resentment of the first hours shared by all the inhabitants of the Roya valley: that of having been the great forgotten of this disaster.