Limony, an Ardèche village of 800 inhabitants, is one of the most affected by last Thursday’s floods.
All day long, Mayor Richard Molina goes from house to house and responds to emergencies.
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LE WE 20H
A waterlogged sofa blocks the path of the mayor of Limony, in Ardèche. He takes care of moving it himself. Like the car, everything in the garage is in the same condition. “A cataclysm is impressive“, reacts the mayor in the 8 p.m. report on TF1 visible at the top of the article. For 48 hours, Richard Molina of Limony, 800 inhabitants, has not slept a wink. His phone has been ringing constantly.
At 8:30 a.m., Thursday morning, in a few dozen minutes, a wooden jam formed at the bridge and prevented the water from draining, with significant pressure on the structure which could have collapsed. “These works have always worked well until now. Saying what more could have been done is difficult. We still had 700 millimeters of water, which is exceptional. The real obstacle is all the trees that have accumulated on the bridge“, explains the mayor.
A colossal sum for reconstruction
All day long, without a minute’s respite, Richard Molina goes from house to house. It provides everyone with the latest information in their possession. With a resident, he recounts how they came to the aid of a lady trapped in her home when the waters rose. “She wanted to go out on a slope with a lot of current so we had to go down and get her”, declares the mayor. And the resident continued: “We got in an excavator and went to get the lady.”
It must be said that Limony is one of the villages in Ardèche most devastated by the torrential rains last Thursday, according to AFP. The town, located on the banks of the Rhône, bears the name of the river which crosses it and flows into the river. It deviated from its bed, taking away two footbridges and spreading throughout the village.
“We didn’t lose anyone, it’s the first challenge we were able to take on“, the mayor said on Friday to Agnès Pannier-Runacher, during a trip to Limony by the Minister of Ecological Transition, referring to a “catastrophic situation“.
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The reconstruction of Limony will cost several million euros. A colossal sum for a village of this size. In the meantime, the municipality can count on one value: solidarity.
