At the opening of the departmental session, Marie-Agnès Petit returned to the floods, the consequences, the damage and the future action plan.
“In France, only three sections were on red alert in Vigicrues, and they were all in Haute-Loire,” recalls the president of the Department, also president of the SDIS (firefighters). “290 firefighters were engaged with 100 machines. Business leaders were asked to release their firefighter employees. We received 180 firefighters as reinforcements, coming from the southwest, Gironde, Vienne, Creuse, from the East, of Moselle, Haut and Bas-Rhin and the Civil Security of Brignoles.”
Helping affected communities humanly and technically
She adds: “All the teams from the road centers were mobilized, 70 agents from the Department intervened. The damage was significant in Tence and Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, these municipalities paid a heavy price. Brives was also impacted with sections of cliffs, broken water pipes. In-depth inspections must be carried out in the coming days and weeks to detect the fragility of the bridges. It is estimated that the work will cost between €400,000 and €500,000. there are no injuries. We will offer to make Department agents available to help the most affected municipalities for one or two days.”
Philippe Delabre, vice-president, adds that “Ingé 43 will support the municipalities for technical assistance for communities. Tence has already come forward for its wastewater treatment plant, which is now out of service”.
“People in distress”
Gilles Delabre, mayor of Brives, saw “people in distress, 40 homes affected with 1.40 m of water. We had to hospitalize an elderly person.” In Brives, the first estimate reaches 2 million euros of work.
Quick work expected
Guy Jolivet, mayor of Bas-en-Basset, again underlined “the remarkable solidarity” but urged rapid work on the dike and the ponds. “I hope we will have the intelligence to do the work quickly and not spend our time doing studies. It may not be perfect but it worked well.”
