The good smell of hot baguette floats in the air in Thérouanne (Pas-de-Calais). A year after the floods which devastated Pas-de-Calais, the Saint-Georges bakery has been full since its reopening. The batches resumed a little over a month ago, after a year of closure. This is the consequence of two floods: the first which took place in November 2023, then the second last January. The center of the town was again flooded by the overflowing Saint-Augustin, a tributary of the river which crosses the town.
“There was 80 cm of water” : Élodie, who has worked here since 2016, indicates that there is nothing left of the bakery she knew because everything had to be redone. “Here you have a new room which was made for the laboratory, it concerns everything which will be a pizzeria and caterer. Everything has been redone. Everything, from the placo to the plinths. The doors had to be changed. The ceiling also, because with the humidity everything was reassembled, the electricity from A to Z”.
Insurance backed the bakery. There is no longer any visible trace of the rising waters but in Élodie's head, the trauma is still there. “It made a torrent, it sounded like a river. When the gates were opened, it sounded like a river. We had to flee. So frankly, it was a shock. Afterwards, we were unemployed . It was mainly for my boss that we were worried..
In the street behind the town hall, at the foot of the small red brick houses, there are still, a year later, sandbags piled up near the garages like at Eugénie's. “The local residents are afraid that it will happen again so they are not parting with it. Besides, we have a stock behind the village hall which has also remained there.”
The residents had positioned them to retain water, to no avail. After the flood receded, it was necessary to break down the walls in the young woman's home, which were no longer healthy. In its entrance, it has also since installed a cofferdam, a sort of small removable dike if another flood arrives one day.
There remain two uninhabitable houses in the town. The repair of the banks is not yet complete. The roads, which are very damaged, are not covered by insurance. According to Alain Chevalier, the mayor of Thérouanne (Pas-de-Calais), the town still needs €300,000. “It is the municipality which will have to find this money from its budget. We will all tighten our belts.”
But the most important thing for the elected official, what will protect his commune in the future, are major works upstream: hill reservoirs to prevent water from flowing into the valley. A project is planned, partly supported by the State. Its cost: millions of euros. But the mayor is waiting to see if this will be achieved, due to the political crisis the state is going through regarding the 2025 budget. A long-term job therefore, which will also require expropriating people and that will take time, adds- he.
