He set up his command post in the CDI of a high school in Petite-Terre, the roof of which was largely torn off by Cyclone Chido, whose damage from the devastating passage last December 14 is still visible everywhere, while a new cyclone, Dikelidi, was feared this weekend.
At the head of a team of 65 firefighters from Normandy to the Pyrénées-Atlantiques to lend a helping hand to the Mahorais, Lieutenant-Colonel Aymeric Binninger, usually based at the Évreux headquarters, is part of the European delegation which volunteered to help Mayotte. With Warrant Officer Ouadif Amaïch, trainer in Évreux, and Sergeant Thomas Petit, from the Gisors rescue center, the three of them arrived on site on December 30 for a period of approximately three weeks.
Their mission has three parts. “We treat wounds, wounds in precarious neighborhoods called the waveswhere we support a collective that distributes breakfasts to children. We are strengthening the mission of unloading planes in the airport cargo area and we are participating in the rehabilitation of schools, which is one of the authorities' key objectives,” says Aymeric Binninger.
Since his arrival, he has been struck by “the impressive resilience of the Mahorais, who very quickly rebuilt enough to put a roof over their heads”, despite the scale of the destruction, the lack of drinking water, food and medicines in the poorest neighborhoods.
At the high school where he is staying, water cuts do not pose a major problem. “We have drinking water at certain times of the day, randomly, for food. For the rest, showers in particular, we can use non-potable water because it is clean,” he describes. Concerning electricity, it demonstrates the important work underway to restore the network.
“Life resumes. There are people in the streets, the small shops have reopened. Plant waste is stored along the roads and excavators are at work clearing everything,” he notes.
On site, the scale of the task is enormous. But the long working days are rewarded by the warmth of human exchanges. “We were very well received. In 48 hours the children call you by your first name and want to play with you. »
