“Our modeling systems (especially rivers) are overwhelmed by weather events,” she stressed.
Eighteen departments are still on orange alert for “rain flood” or “floods” this Friday, October 18 morning. The Cévennes episode was particularly intense, with exceptional amounts of rain recorded on the Ardèche terrain.
700 mm of water fell in 48 hours in certain points of Ardèche, this is “more than the precipitation in a year in Paris”, said Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, this Friday morning on Bfmtv.
“We are facing episodes linked to climate change,” she stressed, adding that “we must get used to these situations and arm ourselves to face them.”
Victims
With regard to the disaster areas, the minister indicated that the time is now for “emergency management”, but that the subject of recognition of the state of natural disaster will be dealt with “very quickly”.
If the night from Thursday to Friday was “less worse” than what was feared, there are still around a hundred victims who have not yet returned to their homes. Electricity has been restored to almost all homes that were deprived of it.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher also spoke about the population alert systems in the event of major bad weather, in particular FR-Alert, which was used this time in Ardèche, but not in the Rhône. She mentions necessary “feedback” because “we have difficulty predicting the speed of the rise in water levels”.
“Our modeling systems (notably watercourses) are overwhelmed by weather events,” she points out, specifying a lack of “historical perspective” in terms of statistics.
Budget level, “the account is not there”
The minister claims that in budgetary matters, “on adaptation to climate change and the fight against greenhouse gas emissions, the account is not there. We need a budget that is up to the situation and this is not the case today. Should we wait until the situation becomes untenable to act? ‘ecology”.
“Above all, I want to work on having the means for my action (…) if I do not have them, I will draw the conclusions,” she added about the 2025 budget.
Among other things, she highlighted the “unprecedented level” of natural disasters that the country is facing, specifying that the end of the year could not be spared from other major bad weather.
