The Somme heals its wounds. Three days after the intense rains which hit the department and caused spectacular and devastating mudslides, many municipalities and their inhabitants are now forced to carry out a major clean-up. In Bray-sur-Somme, where many homes were flooded, the victims oscillated between sadness and resignation.
“It’s called a life, we’ve been here for 20 years so there’s everything we keep, everything we put away carefully. There, we’re in the phase of noticing, of being powerless” , Cécile confides to BFMTV, pointing to a mound of belongings destroyed and rendered unusable by water and mud.
To add an additional pitfall to an already extremely delicate situation, the latter, like many of its neighbors, has no longer had hot water or electricity since Tuesday evening.
“We are very tired, and we tell ourselves that we still have so many things to put away, wash, store. And it will be the insurance test where we will have to list everything,” she laments again .
“It’s on the ground that we discuss”
In this town of just over 1,200 people, municipal infrastructure was also affected by the mud. The gymnasium, already flooded in 2018, requires the requisition of nine municipal agents who will have to work nearly a week in order to restore it to its initial state.
“We go there with a jet of water, with a squeegee, in order to remove most of the mud the first time. This is an operation that we will probably have to repeat a second time before we can proceed with the cleaning “, explains Patricia Blanchet, one of the mobilized agents.
For his part, the deputy mayor of Bray-sur-Somme deplores the inaction of the public authorities and calls on state representatives to travel.
“At least come and see on the ground. It’s on the ground that we discuss, it’s not around a table,” annoys Jean-Michel Galland, still at BFMTV.
New showers
In the neighboring town of Sailly-Laurette, very hard hit on Tuesday, it is also time for cleaning. Here, a specialized company was commissioned to clear the main street, the tarmac of which was almost entirely torn away by the mud, stranding residents in their homes for several days.
It is also in this village that many farmers suffered heavy losses following these mudslides. “It’s all the work of the year that has gone down the drain, hours of work that disappear in a few minutes,” Florence told us on Wednesday.
And the elements definitely leave very little respite for the locals. As Le Courrier Picard indicates, Thursday May 23, new hail storms, which once again caused mudslides, were recorded.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
