A week after storm Kirk which caused monster flooding, particularly in Île-de-France, the south of Yvelines has its feet in the water again. The Yvette, a sub-tributary of the Seine, has once again overflowed after a new episode of heavy rain yesterday Thursday October 17. This time the flood was less significant, but the residents already affected last week are discouraged and very tired.
This is particularly the case in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse where, like ten days previously, only the lower part of the city was affected. In the houses closest to Yvette, the gardens have been transformed into real ponds where furniture and children’s toys float. At her upstairs window, a Saint-Rémoise woman has tears in her eyes. “I don’t want to come down, I don’t want to see thisshe sighs. I can’t take it anymore.”
Mathilde Bouquerel
Residents use system D
His son, Jonathan came to help him. He borrowed a motorized pump from the hospital he works in and he hooked it up in his parents’ garage, where the water was slowly going down. “We tried to protect the inside of the house last night with bags that automatically inflate on contact with waterhe explains. But after a while, the water started to go over it, it was coming from both sides, there was nothing we could do anymore…” Jonathan and his parents remain vigilant because the Yvette, at the end of the street, is still very high.
Mathilde Bouquerel
Power was cut in the city center because an electrical transformer was hit by flooding. One of the bakers was still able to bake a few baguettes and pastries, which one of the employees, Nidal, sold directly to customers on the street. For locals, it’s system D, as for Laure, her husband Martial and their two-month-old daughter. “I made myself boots with waterproof shoes and cellophanedetails the young mother. We’re on the second floor so it’s okay, it’s just getting out that we’re having a hard time. And then it’s difficult with the little one: for example, we have to go to the pediatrician for her vaccinations…”
“We wonder, in the long term, if we are going to stay here”
Mathilde Bouquerel
A little further, in rue des Ecoles which was completely floodedMarine trudges out of her house, plastic fangs on her feet and jogging pants pulled up to her knees. “It’s really a lot, frankly we can’t take it anymoreshe confides. It’s true that we wonder if, in the long term, we will stay here because if it is to have this every winter…” In the immediate future, Marine will have to find a childcare solution for her children, because their school has also been flooded.
