The Pas-de-Calais department is placed on yellow alert for flooding this Monday, January 6, 2025. After some localized flooding in Boulonnais, the victims of the Liane do not hide their concerns and are awaiting the start of the announced works… when solutions are possible.
The essentials of the day: our exclusive selection
Every day, our editorial team reserves the best regional news for you. A selection just for you, to stay in touch with your regions.
France Télévisions uses your email address to send you the newsletter “The essentials of the day: our exclusive selection”. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Our privacy policy
A collapsed embankment, water running down secondary roads and localized flooding. After the episode of snow which crossed the region on Saturday January 4, 2025, sustained rains soaked the already very wet soils and caused several watercourses to react.
In Boulonnais, where the Liane crosses several municipalities, localized flooding was noted on Sunday January 5, 2025.
“We had a small flood but nothing alarming”says Adrien Delliaux, resident of Hesdigneul-les-Boulogne and technical agent employed by the municipality. No house in the town was threatened, no inhabitant of the village of 800 souls had to be evacuated, the coastal river returned to its bed this Monday, January 6, 2025. Even if the yellow vigilance is maintained on the watercourse, the “slow decline” has started, details the Vigicrues service in its latest bulletin.
But for how long? A question that the thirty-year-old does not want to risk answering. Because with each new vigilance triggered, each flood of the Liane, even if minimal and usual for the season, the memories come back, as do the anxieties. “You know, it only takes a few drops of rain for my neighbors to immediately install their cofferdams”testifies the thirty-year-old, strongly marked by the historic floods of November 2023 and January 2024.
“The situation is not very comfortable”, admits Antoine Chantereau, member of the Liane disaster victims collective. “We are a long way from what we experienced in 2023, he tempers, however. But before the historic floods, it seemed like it took several days of rain in a row to flood. But now, we have the impression that the water is rising faster.” A feeling, admits the victim, which alone illustrates the trauma of last winter's floods.
During the night of Sunday January 5 to Monday January 6, 2025, the level of the Liane exceeded 3.30 meters at the Isques station. A height never equaled since the start of winter, but well below the historic levels recorded in November 2023. With 5 meters 35 measured, the Liane had flooded several hundred homes in the basin, including an entire district of Hesdigneul -lès-Boulogne where the water had risen to more than 1.20 meters in some houses. The town hall and the village school had also taken on water and evacuations by helicopter were carried out by the firefighters.
To protect itself, the Boulonnais agglomeration carried out a vast study to “understand the dynamics of recent floods on the Liane and propose works” to improve water flow. A study unveiled during a public meeting in mid-December: among the options envisaged to reduce water levels by 25 to 50 cm during ten-year floods, the widening of part of the Liane, the creation drainage ditches and flood expansion zones. “Ces work that could have been undertaken 20 years ago but it is going in the right direction”, reacts the member of the Liane disaster victims collective. “We now want things to get underway quickly because the schedule provides for 3 years between the studies and the completion of the work”.
An incompressible time, sometimes difficult to understand by the victims. “When we experience flooding 4 times in a week, it marks…”, summarizes Adrien Delliaux, resident of Place Pauchet in Hesdigneul-lès-Boulogne. The small dead-end street, located at the exit of the village, is flooded every time vigilance is triggered by Météo France. “Here the water rises very quickly, agrees Adrien Delliaux. And since the floods last year, we are afraid every time, we stress, we scrutinize the level”.
However, according to the agglomeration, “no development seems effective” in this sector of Hesdigneul-lès-Boulogne to protect against flooding. The Boulonnais Urban Community thus favors “the acquisition of all the houses on Place Pauchet” with a view to renaturing spaces “to all owners who wish it”. Leaving was out of the question for Adrien Delliaux, who learned the news just before the Christmas holidays. “It’s a feeling of abandonment, of anger, but we will fight”, assures the 36-year-old municipal agent, who has never lived anywhere other than Hesdigneul-lès-Boulogne.
Related News :