in Ille-et-Vilaine, a couple of residents victim of two successive mudslides

Nightmare week for residents of Baguer-Pican, a hamlet located in Ille-et-Vilaine. In the space of three days, as a result of heavy rains, they suffered two successive mudslides which caused significant damage inside and outside their home.

“On Monday, we had a big round of stormy rain, and the ditches did not sufficiently block the flow of water coming from the fields behind. And suddenly, the ditches started to overflow and then everything went into the house. We had 30 cm of water in the house.” At the end of the day, Monday, a deluge of rain fell on the hamlet of Baguer-Pican causing a major mudslide and flooding for Alexis Marguerite and his partner. The damage was significant.

After the intervention of the firefighters who helped pump the water, they decided to clean everything over the next two days. “On Wednesday evening the house was clean. We had just spent two days polishing the house except Thursday, repeat“, testifies Alexis.

Heavy rains on Tuesday and Wednesday put paid to their efforts. Thursday May 23, around noon, the couple found their feet in the water again, following a second mudslide. “We had a little less water but we still had 5 cm of water in the kitchen“, testifies Alexis. “All the equipment in the house, everything was already ruined on Monday, so we didn’t have any more losses, but the house took a second round of humidity.”

Following this second episode, the couple urgently decided to contact the town hall’s technical services. “The ditches, we asked that the town hall intervene quickly to do something, to try to prevent it from happening again, but not much has happened since, so we are worried about a new storm.”

This couple has lived in this hamlet for 10 years. They are the only residents to have been hit this hard in the area. “We have a neighbor who had her gate motor fail and another neighbor where all the water poured into her yard then entered her outbuildings.”

The buzzards, pipe element allowing the evacuation of mini-bursts would be involved in this succession of mudslides and would not play their role. “All the ditches must be piped, so the neighbors block the ditches with nozzles except that when there is bad weather, nozzles of 300 mm in diameter can no longer handle all the water that arrives.“, explains Alexis. “It ends up clogging. This creates a water blockage and the water rises upstream. So I asked the town hall to find a solution, to have the ditches and culverts cleaned, everything that is not in the open air.”

While waiting for the intervention of the municipality’s technical services, the couple contacted their insurance. In terms of material damage, the house was heavily affected as well as their two vehicles. The amount has not yet been estimated. An expert from their insurance is due to come next Tuesday to assess the amount of damage.

Alexis, his partner and their 8-year-old daughter are currently staying in a gîte owned by a neighbor. “The town hall hasn’t necessarily found solutions for us, even temporary, to accommodate us, but we’re lucky. We have lodgings nearby. Solidarity meant that the owners graciously lent us the accommodation so that we could sleep in a healthy house..”

As long as the problem has not been resolved by the town hall services, the couple does not wish to return to live in the house for the moment. “If it means finding yourself again at 4 a.m. with your feet in the mud to mop everything up, it’s not great.” testifies Alexis. “We don’t want to go through that again. It’s stressful and stressful. We have an 8-year-old daughter. When it happened the first time, she was terrified.”

In the hamlet, around twenty residents also came to lend a hand to help them clean their homes. “It’s a great show of solidarity.”