Jean-Luc lives in a large house at the entrance to the marsh. “Every morning I come to see the ditch, we wonder if it won’t start again,” he said. One year after storm Ciaran, all the inhabitants of Favières remain very affected by the floods of November 2023. The village, surrounded by five rivers, had been underwater for several dayswith roads and houses flooded. Like 12 other communes of Marquenterre and the Picardy coast, Favières had been declared in a state of natural disaster.
The anxiety of reliving the floods
At Jean-Luc, the water came into the garage. “There were 20 centimeters, we could no longer return on dry feet. It was truly a disaster“, he said. The retiree and his wife were relocated to the hotel for ten days by the town hall, until all the water drained. Jean-Luc is so afraid that it will start again, that this year, he purchased cofferdams, aluminum planks with seals to attach to doors to prevent water from entering buildings.
At Catherine's, we pumped for 15 days to prevent water from entering the bedroom floor. “Pumping 24 hours a day is hellish. My husband stayed there to watch, he didn't sleep. And it continues to bother us: when I see that it's starting to rain you say to yourself, damn if it happens again! “. Catherine and her husband even bought a second pump, in case the first one broke down. “We think about it. It's still things that remain marked when we see everything spilling over everywhere”, insists Alain. The water did not enter his house, but we still had to take out the tractor to pick up the son at the end of the road. “It's still a bit stressful. When we moved the freezers, I got up it was midnight, it's true that we don't sleep peacefully after all”he adds.
Even if the floods here in the Somme have nothing to do with what we experienced in Pas-de-Calais, the anxiety remains. “We can't forget that. The flood is like a fire. A disaster is a disaster, we will always have that in our heads. It's scary all the same, you can't stop it. water, there is nothing to do. It was hell. My father-in-law is 94 years old, he has never seen that in his life.adds his wife Sophie. She kept all the newspaper clippings with the photos of the flooded roads.
Work is progressing, promises the mayor
If most residents worry about one day experiencing another November 2023, it's because of the state of the ditches at the side of the roads. They are all worried that the water is not flowing as well as it should. “Between the rivers, the marshes, the tides… It's definitely going to start again.”assure Catherine. “We were promised great things, that we were going to do lots of work and ultimately we have the impression that things haven’t really progressed”adds Jean-Luc.
The mayor of Favières Guy Taeck assures that the work of cleaning the ditches has started well, particularly in the west near the Bay of Somme along the main road, and that they are continuing towards the east and the marsh. If this is not progressing as quickly as everyone would like, it is because of the authorizations which take time, specific equipment. The mayor also reminds that cleaning is prohibited due to regulations surrounding biodiversity. Elected officials sent letters to the State to request the simplification of the rules surrounding cleaning. The mayor also points out that some private owners do not play the game by not letting machines come onto their land or by not maintaining private ditches.
