2023-11-22 01:07:29
Dozens of homes are still in water on Tuesday in Pas-de-Calais, where a river remains on orange flood alert due to new precipitation, two weeks after the start of these devastating floods. The prefecture, noting that “the weather conditions have significantly improved” during the day in the department, emphasizes that “this calm should continue at least until Friday evening”.
Tuesday evening, only the Canche which crosses Montreuil-sur-Mer remained placed on orange alert for floods, indicates Vigicrues in its latest bulletin, specifying that the decline which began during the weekend “was thwarted by the rains on Monday, causing always significant overflows.”
Houses like quasi-islands between streams and flooded fields
The situation remains delicate in Éperlecques, where around twenty homes are still flooded according to the prefecture, and in the marshes of Saint-Omer and Guines near Calais, where the recession is slow. In Ruminghem, a town in the Hem basin located between Calais and Saint-Omer, pumps were working to evacuate the water and large marshy areas were still flooded on Tuesday morning, noted two AFP journalists.
In the countryside, where the soil is saturated with water from more than two weeks of record bad weather and historic floods, a few houses seem to form quasi-islands between streams and flooded fields.
Monday evening, 42 high-volume pumps were active between Pas-de-Calais and the neighboring North, also affected by flooding, making it possible to pump 65,360 m3/h, indicated the prefecture of the North zone.
Five minor injuries but very serious material damage
As reinforcement, four Dutch pumps with a capacity of 5,000 m3/h each will be installed by the end of the week between the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, two of which were to be operational from Tuesday in Mardyck ( North), to accelerate the evacuation of water towards the sea. In these two departments, “975 firefighters and rescuers are still mobilized to assist the affected populations”, indicated civil security on the X network (ex -Twitter).
The floods have caused five minor injuries in the department since November 6, and very significant material damage. They affected nearly 6,000 homes, 160 businesses, 130 businesses and at least 50 agricultural operations, according to the prefecture.
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