Belgium: heavy damage after further rains

New bad weather concentrated in the Meuse valley near Namur, towards the French border.

AFP - NICOLAS MAETERLINCK

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

While the Belgians were still not finished clearing the rubble of the floods of last week, new deluges descended on the kingdom on Saturday.

The bad weather was again concentrated in the valley of the Meuse, no longer in Liège towards the German border, but, further south, from Namur towards the French border.

The damage is spectacular, but no casualties are to be deplored.

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It is almost a Cevennes episode that the province of Namur lived. The flood hit the plateaus of the left bank of the Meuse in a very short time on the evening of Saturday July 24 and affected nearly 11 municipalities. Between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., the waters then transformed the streets of certain localities in the valley into rivers, including the city of Dinant where rail traffic will not resume anytime soon, reports our correspondent in Brussels,

Pierre Benazet

. It was interrupted following flooding last week, but on Saturday night torrents of mud deposited asphalt and cars on one of the crossings.

“ 

In Dinant, the inhabitants of the left bank of the Meuse woke up without drinking water this Sunday,

explains Axel Tixhon, mayor of Dinant

, the

clearance is in full swing

as in Namur.

The station district was drowned there by the resurgence of old streams now buried and used for the evacuation of wastewater, but which turned into real geysers at the beginning of the night. 

"

To read also: Ten days after the floods in Belgium, the controversies multiply

Heavy flooding, but no flooding

The spokesperson for the national crisis center, Antoine Iseux, however, specified that the situation was "out of

 proportion 

" with the floods of July 14 and 15 because the rains had not this time caused a flood.

Despite everything, they caused material damage, flooding cellars, damaging roads, homes and cars.

Belgium was hit on July 14 and 15 by

unprecedented flooding

, following heavy floods caused by several days of torrential rains.

They mainly affected the region of Liège, in eastern Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium and left 36 dead as well as seven people still missing, according to a latest report published on Saturday by the crisis center.

⛈ New dramatic (but localized) floods affected Dinant in Belgium (province of Namur) this evening when a torrential storm passed!

(© Scotty Noel) pic.twitter.com/rJBOcnGNwx

- Weather Express (@MeteoExpress) July 24, 2021

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