Europe 1 with AFP 6:57 p.m., February 8, 2024

No announcement, but the reiterated promise of long-term support from the State: Prime Minister Gabriel Attal returned Thursday to the bedside of the inhabitants of Pas-de-Calais, traumatized by the episodes of flooding which have affected since November their department, flooded again locally.

Faced with desperate local elected officials, residents sometimes in tears or evoking their "dark thoughts", the Prime Minister launched into a long sequence of cuddle therapy, a month after his first visit to the department, the very day he took office. functions.

The situation is “untenable” for residents, he agreed during this trip to Blendecques and Longuenesse, before recalling his commitments, in particular the simplification of procedures to speed up work or clean out waterways. And “to avoid that next November, we end up with the same thing”.

Forced to cut short his visit due to rearrangement

“All that has been done,” he said. But "has everything been resolved? No", he added, promising to "continue to act" and to return in a month. He announced the release of “an additional 10 million euros” to the 50 million promised by Emmanuel Macron to assist communities, thus confirming the figure of 60 million already mentioned on Wednesday by government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot.

During discussions with traders exposing their grievances, he also insisted on the aid of 5,000 euros that they will be able to receive to compensate for their operating loss.

Forced to shorten his visit due to reshuffles, he said that the tragedy of the floods allowed him to take "a lot of perspective" on the "political adventures" of the moment, in an allusion to the crisis opened in Macronie by the recent remarks by François Bayrou.

“We fear the worst”

Pas-de-Calais, which experienced two episodes of large-scale flooding in November and January, has not finished with flooding: around fifty kilometers from the ministerial trip, the Canche river, placed on orange alert, got out of bed on Thursday, reigniting concern in a territory on edge.

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 “We are at the end of our tether”, in Pas-de-Calais, the return of floods despairs the inhabitants

These two episodes have already left respectively 6,500 and 2,800 homes damaged, according to the prefecture, which recorded nearly 300 requests for temporary rehousing. The Brimeux sector, near Montreuil-sur-Mer, was "the most affected" Thursday morning by the floods of the Canche, according to the prefecture.

An AFP correspondent noted in this town of 900 inhabitants that roads were cut by water and gardens flooded. “We are going to upgrade our furniture and our household appliances as much as possible this afternoon. For the rest, we will see, but we fear the worst for the hours to come,” confide Tania Selve and Maurice Sammarcelli, two residents who do not can only notice the rising waters around their small property purchased in October in this marsh area.

Redeployed pumps

“It’s the same situation as in November and in January, it’s repeated for the third time,” laments a local resident, Régis Lacroix, whose garden is partly flooded. The precipitation is expected to continue until Friday morning, risking "leading to new reactions on the most reactive waterways", Vigicrues has already warned.

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 Pas-de-Calais: after the floods, specialized companies are working to clean up the damage

The anticipated floods on the Canche should, however, remain less significant than in November and January, specifies the forecaster. The prefect of Pas-de-Calais decided on Tuesday for the “preventive deployment of firefighters, police officers and gendarmes” and the repositioning on the ground of the pumps used during previous episodes, in order to reactivate them quickly if necessary.

The prefect also asked VNF (Voies navigables de France) and the Institution des Wateringues (the drainage ditches of this polder area, editor's note) to activate the "pumping means at their disposal to anticipate the rise in water in the canals and watercourses which they manage. In Aisne, four roads were also submerged by water on Thursday, leading to the implementation of diversions, according to the prefecture.