“The municipal emergency plan has been triggered, quickly indicated the mayor of Dinant, Thierry Bodlet. These young people come from several schools (from Tellin, Brussels and Flanders in particular). We brought back several. The others are repatriated and expected upon arrival at Lesse, rue du Vélodrome, where they are all gathered and welcomed at an advanced medical post to check whether they need care.” The restaurant and chip shop were able to accommodate the students.
“Never seen before”
“The flow of the Lesse is too high but the Walloon Region has not declared that it is impassable, continued Thierry Bodlet. In cases like this, the operator, Dinant Évasion, must use common sense.”
Olivier Pitance, the manager of Dinant Évasion, explains this regrettable situation by the arrival “with a huge splash of water” that no one saw coming. “The flow did not reach a rate preventing the circulation of kayaks on the Lesse, he assures. I do not incriminate either the Walloon Region or the IRM. The Lesse gained 1m50 in two hours, it created a real tidal wave. It’s a natural phenomenon that we couldn’t have predicted.”
And Olivier Pitance added: “When we saw the wave of water coming and there were calls to 112, we decided to interrupt the launching of the kayaks and we went to the sensitive points to meet the people and help them Some people fell into the water but everyone had a life jacket at their disposal, there were enough. There were still around 500 people on the water, that was one! big group of people to take care of.”
The young people who fell into the water were recovered by fire-divers specifically trained for this type of operation.
Several students suffered from hypothermia and were given survival blankets. Five young people were transported to hospital for further monitoring, according to information from the City of Dinant published on its Facebook page. A psychosocial unit was also activated.
The Red Cross notably intervened to attach identification bracelets to all the young people. They were scanned before being evacuated so that no one was forgotten. A helicopter also flew over the watercourse to see if there were any victims stranded on the banks of the Lesse, in places that were not accessible from the road.
The manager of La Flobette to the rescue
The manager of La Flobette, a place where it is possible to eat in the Furfooz nature reserve, saw several students in distress and immediately helped them get back on the bank. They were very scared and so was she.
A teacher from a Brussels school who came by train with around a hundred teenagers between 15 and 18 years old said he was furious that the students were allowed to leave from Gendron (Houyet) when the weather conditions were not optimal.
The City of Dinant notably requisitioned buses to bring home students who had come by train.
Shortly before 7 p.m., the situation returned to normal and the last teenagers left the area on buses. The emergency plan was therefore lifted. More fear than harm, therefore for these young people but the conditions of accessibility to the Lesse which raise questions.
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