Water invaded the roads in the villages of Mainvault, Moulbaix and Wuillaupuis. In some places, 30 to 40 liters of water per square meter fell.
The emergency services of Picardy Wallonia carried out around a hundred interventions. Certain areas of the Wapi were completely spared. No injuries were reported.
“The first calls were recorded shortly after 12:00 p.m. for mudslides, roads under water and flooded cellars following the heavy rains which fell late in the morning in certain regions of western Hainaut. Some towns, including Tournai, were relatively unaffected by this rain. Certainly, it rained, but nothing more,” indicated the dispatching of the Wapi emergency zone around 3 p.m.
“This is not the case in other cities and towns. In the Ath region, the city bypass was inaccessible for a while. In Ath, a couple had to be rehoused following the flooding of their house. In this same entity, mudslides affected the villages of Rebaix, Ostiches and Mainvault. The villages of Wiers (Péruwelz), Willaupuis (Leuze) and Blaton (Bernissart) were also affected. In Mouscron, the express road tunnel (Dottignies-Mouscron), which was underwater, had to be closed,” indicates Wapi dispatching.
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In Walloon Brabant
The heavy rains that fell on Tuesday afternoon in Walloon Brabant caused flooding in Chastre, Jodoigne and Mont-Saint-Guibert, as well as the overflow of the Hain in Walhain, we learned from the Brabant relief zone Walloon.
Walloon Brabant firefighters have been mobilized since late Tuesday afternoon due to bad weather.
It is mainly flooding of roads invaded by downpours or mud which keeps the sappers busy, mainly in the entities of Chastre, Jodoigne and Mont-Saint-Guibert.
In Walhain, the river (Hain) has burst its banks at rue de la Culée.
“We are far from the situation of May 12 and the showers now seem to be fading. The water invaded certain roads and property yards, but I did not hear that any houses had really been flooded,” Mayor Xavier Dubois explained to the Belga agency on Tuesday evening.
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In Flanders
The alert threshold of two rivers was exceeded in the towns of Grammont and Zwalm, in East Flanders. Several other places in the Flemish Ardennes were also affected by the floods, indicate the Flemish Environment Agency and the emergency services.
Firefighters in the Flemish Ardennes area received around thirty calls for flooding in the areas around Zottegem and Brakel, among others. These were mainly flooded streets or mudslides, as in the center of the municipality of Michelbeke in Brakel.
“On the Brakel-Aalst-Lier-Turnhout axis, precipitation reaching 45 millimeters has already been recorded locally. On several non-navigable watercourses, retention basins are put into service to avoid critical flooding,” reports the Flemish Environment Agency on the Waterinfo website.
Around 6 p.m., the alert thresholds of the Mark, in Viane in the Dendre basin and of Zwalmbeek, in Zwalm in the Haut Escaut basin were exceeded. “On the Dendre, a peak flow of 35 to 40 cubic meters per second is expected at Overboelare by tonight. The pre-wake thresholds are exceeded downstream from Grammont to Denderleeuw. The alert thresholds could also be slightly exceeded in Idegem and Pollare,” says the Flemish Environment Agency. No critical flooding threatening homes is expected at this time along non-navigable watercourses.
The heavy rains also caused inconvenience in the Antwerp towns of Lier and Lint. Firefighters were called to flooded streets and cellars, as well as overturned manhole covers.
The authorities in Lier have called on residents to temporarily limit their travel to what is strictly necessary. Several streets were also closed to traffic.
