“we no longer even had our feet”, the village of Limony engulfed by water

Limony is one of the municipalities in Ardèche most affected by bad weather. Having burst its banks, the river which crosses the village carried away everything in its path… and the inhabitants found themselves underwater. They tell.

“I have lived in Limony for 42 years and I have never seen this”. Sainoure Georges lives in Limony, a small village in Ardèche. The sixty-year-old has just suffered the full brunt of the torrential rains of the day before which caused the river to flood.

The water came so hard from the top of his street, up to his knees, that “and [elle] had opened the garage door at that time, all [serait] mort”she retorts.

Barefoot, brooms in hand, the Ardéchoise tries to repair the damage caused by bad weather, removing the mud that has seeped into her garage. All this, after a short night. “I waited until 4 a.m. (Friday) to see if it wasn’t going to start raining again”she blurted.

The river carried away everything in its path

Deviating from its bed for several meters, the river which flows into the Rhône carried away pieces of wood in its path causing traffic jams, notably on the stone bridge, two footbridges as well as Samuel’s neighbor’s red Twingo .

The car landed in the fifty-year-old’s garden, just after “broke down the gate” et “to have rested there”says the man, pointing to the vehicle now stuck in the mud. Samuel remembers that his garden looked like a swimming pool, very deep: “We didn’t even have our feet anymore”relate-t-il.

Its cellar is still submerged, and “it rises by capillary action” towards the ground floor, he worries. “The village looks like a war zone”he said, describing a situation “Dantesque”.

Also read. Floods and flooding in the Loire and Ardèche: Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, visiting these two hard-hit departments

In Limony, the streets are littered with torn trunks, piles of wood and mud. Gardens are flooded, cars overturned or perched on low walls… water has infiltrated every portion of the road, washing away everything in its path. There is a strong smell of diesel in the village.

Michèle also had to fight against the elements. She had “water up to my chin!”she mimes. The septuagenarian was in her house, putting on her shoes when water invaded her house.

“I clung to the front door”near his son, also clinging to a height, while waiting for help. Once help arrived, she had to swim to reach the floats, then the helicopter, before being airlifted.

“My son climbed onto the hedge to tie us up”adds Michèle, who does not remember the flight to the emergency room in Annonay, being in an attack of hypothermia. The Ardéchoise then spent the night with her granddaughter before returning to the village, where she discovered the extent of the damage.

The shock of the next day

The water returned everything to his house, located in the area where the river burst its banks. “I don’t realize yet.”says the old lady, who has lived in Limony for 20 years.

In the village of 800 inhabitants, residents now travel with wheelbarrows. Construction machines are hard at work clearing the asphalt while firefighters try to pump water from the basements of flooded homes.

“We didn’t lose anyone, it’s the first challenge we were able to take on”said Mayor Richard Molina on Friday to Agnès Pannier-Runacher, during a trip to the village of the Minister of Ecological Transition, evoking a “catastrophic situation”.