around thirty houses affected

[Mise à jour le 10/01 à 15h] Firefighters are still working in Arques-la-Bataille. Around thirty houses were affected. Firefighters indicate that pumping action is underway in a very exposed home “in order to limit the damage. They are waiting for the start of the recession to tackle other pumping. “Enedis has provided electrical security for flooded homes, no resident is deprived of electricity in the town,” the firefighters finally add.

The water rose this Friday, January 10, 2025 in the morning in Arques-la-Bataille (Seine-Maritime). The firefighters were alerted around 5 a.m. by a person who started to have water in their home.

It is mainly about the rue Verdier-Monetti who is affected.

Abraham ambulances evacuated

At the same time, it was the Abraham ambulances which found themselves with their feet in the water, and which evacuated their 15 vehicles.

“It was Mrs. Abraham, who lives right next door, who saw that it was flooded,” reports David Hardy, a mechanic with the company. At the entrance to the building, the water reaches 15 cm, but a little further on, the level reaches up to 50 cm high.

The captain of the Dieppe fire brigade, Julien Paillette, indicates that this is a significant rise in the waters of the Béthune and the Arques.

Firefighters tried to pump water from a house, but have not yet succeeded due to a lack of a sufficient system.

The water level begins to drop

There would be no injuries. The tide is starting to recede, so firefighters are hoping the water level will also decrease. However, they estimate that the phenomenon could last several days depending on the weather.

On the municipality’s side, it put up signage a little before 8 a.m. “Everyone is on a war footing,” emphasizes Maryline Fournier, the mayor. The water level is starting to drop, so that’s reassuring.”

Floods never seen in Béthune since 2011

In a press release sent on Thursday, January 9, Frédéric Weisz, president of the Arques watershed union, indicates that “runoff and flooding have been noted in the Arques watershed,” and that “rivers are at flood levels never seen since December 2011, for Béthune, or even December 1999, for Varenne.”

In Saint-Aubin-le-Cauf, the Béthune rose in flood, reaching more than 19 m³/s, and the Varenne suffered a flood reaching 14.5 m³/s at 10:30 a.m. Thursday January 9 in Torcy le Grand.

In eight days, the cumulative rainfall is 81 mm in Dieppe, or 89 mm in Saint-Germain-d’Etables, while “the rainfall for the entire month of January is of the order of 75mm”.

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