Caroline Baudry (special correspondent in Pas-de-Calais) / Photo credit: DENIS CHARLET / AFP 20:13 p.m., November 13, 2023

An uneasy calm reigned on Monday evening in the Pas-de-Calais department, which was plagued by flooding. More rain is expected on Tuesday and could further worsen the situation. The Liane, which had overflowed, is on yellow alert, but the affected residents are watching their river like milk on the fire.

Three fluorescent orange marks are drawn on the referee, facing the door of the family café where Justine works. This is the level reached by the water during the three floods that devastated his workplace in the Pas-de-Calais region. A department devastated by rising water levels and floods that continue to deprive many residents of housing.

"We'll see if there's a fourth one because it's getting worse and worse. We're fed up," Justine sighs to Europe 1. Twice a day, the young woman, wearing an electric blue sweater and plastic shoes, walks to the bridge to observe the waves. "We're looking, we'll see if it's coming up. At the moment, it's not going back up," she says.

"As long as work is not carried out..."

Marie-Laure crosses the road, one eye on her dog on a leash, the other on the wild river that has evicted her from her home. "As soon as you reach over the metal tubes, that is to say, you can't see them at all, then you have to worry. It's never been maintained, the problem is there. And as long as work is not done, we will be bothered by this phenomenon. Maybe we could dig deep and develop to avoid overflows or build retention basins, something like that," she suggests.

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"The inhabitants will never be too careful," adds the 279-year-old, who says she is not worried about a fourth flood, since she has already lost everything. Emmanuel Macron and his wife are due to travel to Pas-de-Calais on Tuesday to express their support and that of the nation to the victims. The department's prefecture decided to close nurseries and schools in <> communes on Tuesday and Matignon announced the convening of an interministerial crisis unit.