One year after the terrible floods which hit the whole of Pas-de-Calais, businesses in Audomarois have been able to recover and are gradually resuming normal activity.
Businesses in Audomarois are starting to see the end of the tunnel after the historic floods which ravaged Pas-de-Calais a year ago, causing significant damage for both residents and traders.
To repair the damage but also prevent such an episode from happening again, 633 emergency works were carried out in one year, financed at least 70% by the State, such as the cleaning of waterways. In total, the State mobilized more than 262 million euros in Nord-Pas-de-Calais following these floods.
Caution
From now on, affected traders have been able to resume almost normal activity after finding themselves with their feet in water. This is the case of Sandy's hair salon, in Arques (Pas-de-Calais), completely renovated and reopened since June. Despite the satisfaction of finding her customers, the manager remains cautious.
“So I'm happy because I'm reopened and everything is going well. But it's true that it's still very humid. That's also what bothers me, because we still did everything again” , she confides at the microphone of BFM Grand Littoral.
Certain scars of bad weather resurface regularly. Pointing to a yellowish mark on a wall, she explains: “That reappeared, very very quickly. There, here, it's a little less noticeable because it just came out this week, but you see, I a halo there, I have one that is starting to appear here,” she shows on a wall, behind a mirror.
“An opportunity to do things differently and better”
16 kilometers to the north, the Le Ranch d'Éperlecques campsite also returns to normal daily life. Marc Denis, the manager, had to undertake major work to restore the common room, which remained flooded for several days.
“We immediately redid the tiling. Besides that, we redid the bar. We took an order with a company from Audomaroise,” he tells BFM Grand Littoral, while thanking this company which agreed to begin work before payment of compensation.
Although the extent of the damage delayed the opening of the campsite by a month, turnover remained stable compared to the previous year. Seizing this ordeal as an opportunity, the manager even renovated the toilets to PMR (persons with reduced mobility) standards.
“You have to take it as an opportunity to do things differently and better,” he says optimistically.
He now hopes to complete all the work by May 2025, just in time for the opening of the tourist season. In Pas-de-Calais, 315 municipalities were recognized as being in a state of natural disaster following the floods.
Florine Kurek with Alexandre Simoes
