The bad weather over the weekend caused new floods in the Roya valley, hard hit in October by storm Alex, and swept away several fords.

If they could be quickly repaired, residents now fear the slightest rain as the situation on site remains precarious.

REPORTAGE

The inhabitants of the top of the Roya valley have just spent the weekend cut off from the world and fear that the catastrophe scenario of October will repeat itself.

Heavy rains on Friday made the road to Tende impassable, which was already badly damaged by storm Alex on October 2.

The entire valley and that of Vésubie and Tinée, in the Nice hinterland, had been ravaged by deadly and destructive floods.

Sunday, consolidation work was undertaken and the isolation broken.

The convoys to serve Tende have resumed but the inhabitants scrutinize the sky with anguish. 

Jean-Marc runs Tende tobacco, one of the few businesses still open in the town.

"There were two fords which left. It was nevertheless very, very quickly repaired," he tells Europe 1. But the inhabitants live in fear of new rains.

"It's not reassuring. There will be melting snow, it may happen again," worries a local resident.

"With each rain we are afraid, with each rain we tell ourselves that we will no longer have a road. We really need stronger bridges," says another.

"The reconstruction will take a very long time"

Jean-Pierre Vassallo, the mayor of Tende, knows that reconstruction will take time, but is annoyed to see only temporary solutions.

"We must now build bridges, no more fords, so that we can start to live again normally. Until mid-March, we will not have a train, it becomes really painful", annoys he.

Xavier Pelletier, the prefect in charge of reconstruction, said he understood the impatience of the inhabitants of Roya, but there was no question of skipping steps.

“The reconstruction will not be instantaneous. It will take a very long time,” he explains.

"It requires studies. We are in a mountainous area, there are a lot of parameters to take into consideration. The topography is complicated. We still have landslides, sagging soils. Enter Free, in the valley, and Tende, we have 90 track breaks ", he reports.

The work is expected to cost 1.5 billion euros.