It’s been a long time since mainland France has experienced such an earthquake.. At 6:38 p.m., the earth shook over a large western part of the country. An earthquake felt from New Aquitaine to Normandy via Brittany and the Center. The epicenter of the earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale was located in the Courçon sector, about thirty kilometers east of La Rochelle, near Deux-Sèvres. If the prefecture did not report any injuries, it reported at the start of the evening about twenty buildings or homes potentially weakened by the earthquake and 1,100 homes without electricity, due to a faulty high voltage line. . That is all.
“Like a plane crashing on the town”
And yet, a village suffered great damage. La Laigne, a town of just under 500 inhabitants, located between Courçon-d’Aunis and Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon (Deux-Sèvres). As a precaution, the village was evacuated almost entirely. A large number of homes and buildings are damaged. Especially in the area of the church, whose bell tower is also threatening to collapse.
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Christophe lives in the main street. He was at home when the earth shook : “I was at home, my wife had left to run errands. We had like a plane crashing into the town. It was a big buzz, the earth started shaking not very long but it seemed long. We wonder what’s going on, it’s very scary.”
Drones in the night
A large majority of the inhabitants have found refuge with relatives. A handful will spend the night at the Courçon gymnasium. An end-of-the-world atmosphere in the streets plunged into darkness. On the main artery, the small anthill of firefighters and gendarmes is an illusion. La Laigne has indeed become a ghost towndespite the hum of power generators and the hovering of reconnaissance drones. The work of damage assessment and expertise continues somehow into the night.
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The gendarmes have a room in the town hall opened by the first deputy to set up their command post and spend the night there. Bruno Asperti was in his house when the earthquake shook his village. “There was like a huge bang like a bomb was falling next to my house. It lasted between 5 and 10 seconds. Windows opened by themselves, it shook inside and the cracks appeared”. Earlier in the afternoon, the first deputy mayor had felt a first tremor without necessarily thinking of an earthquake. “It happened. snarled slightly around 3 p.m., as if a truck was dragging something. I didn’t think of an earthquake.”
© Radio France
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Eric LeBihan
“We run our hands through the walls, it’s a disaster”
On the main square of La Laigne, the flashing lights of the rescuers and the flashlights of the haggard inhabitants struggle to tear through the dark night. It’s past midnight. Staggering gradually gives way to fatigue. Several firefighters take a snack break. Sitting at a school table, a colleague informs the few La Laigniens who still come to the newss. This is the case of François and Brigitte. They have lived here for 30 years. The legs sawn off by the state of his beautiful tree-lined building, Brigitte prefers to sit on a piece of pavement. Her husband François has just arrived from La Rochelle. You can read the amazement on his sweaty face.
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“We are in shock at the moment and tomorrow we will realize the reality. All the houses are damaged, we run our hands through the walls, it’s a disaster. Our house is still standing, but it’s chopped down and in danger of collapsing.” On the verge of tears, his companion whispers: “This house had a soul. I don’t think we can go back to it. The damage is irreparable, I’m sad*”.* Built in the middle of the 17th century, the beautiful residence inevitably suffered other earthquakes in its long life. “Yes, but maybe not such powerful earthquakes”, concludes Francis.
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