Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: CHARLES CABY / AFP 21:25 p.m., January 07, 2024

The start of the school year will not take place for all children in France. This Monday, sixteen establishments in Pas-de-Calais, affected by the floods of recent days, will remain closed, the prefecture said. Students from two schools will be welcomed in a municipal hall, distance learning will be set up for middle school students.

Sixteen schools in Pas-de-Calais, affected by the record floods of the last few days, will remain closed on Monday for the start of the school year after the Christmas holidays, said the prefecture, which had listed 13 on Friday.

"The flood is receding, favoured by drier weather"

In addition to the eleven schools, a middle school and a high school already mentioned on Friday, two schools in Calonne-sur-La-Lys and a middle school in Saint-Venant have been added. The students of the two schools will be welcomed in a municipal hall while distance learning will be set up for these middle school students, the prefecture said. While the Pas-de-Calais remains classified on Sunday as an orange flood alert for the Lys Plaine and the Canche, the Aa, which had reached the red level last week, has returned to yellow. For this river, "the flood is receding, favored by the return of drier weather from this Sunday," writes the Vigicrues network in its 16 p.m. bulletin.

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On Saturday, the intercommunal body in charge of wateringues, the ditches and canals draining this very wet area, had indicated that areas where large volumes of water were accumulated would "probably have to wait until the middle of next week to see significant effects" of the receding flood. The pumps of the Civil Security and those from the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Slovakia, deployed in the department, now all operational, make it possible to evacuate 63,480 m3 of water/h, said Sunday the Civil Security on X.

According to the latest assessment of the prefecture, 95 municipalities and 2,084 homes have been affected by this new episode of flooding, which has led to the evacuation of 743 people.