“We asked her to leave but last night she didn’t think it was going to get this high”

After a restless night, the decline is expected today in Seine-et-Marne on the Grand Morin. Still placed on red alert. The river level started to fall yesterday upstream but downstream the flood has spread. In Crécy-la-Chapelle, the water quickly rose at the end of the day yesterday, causing the evacuation of 180 people.

At half past two in the morning, faced with rising water levels, and alerted by a strong smell of fuel oil infiltrating their home, the Pantin family had no other choice but to leave their house, which was evacuated by the firefighters. , and to take refuge in a village school.

“We couldn’t stay in a house where it smelled like gasoline so at half past two they came to pick us up by car and brought us here. […] We’re together, so it’s okay, but we’ll have to be patient.”tell Alexandre and Magalie Pantin, child and dog on their knees.

Around twenty people have already found refuge in this school in Crècy-la-Chapelle (Seine-et-Marne) while evacuations continue in the city.

Jeanne quickly became alone, she refused to leave her home but given the rising waters, the next night she would go and sleep at a friend’s house: “We asked her to leave but last night she didn’t think it was going to get this high”confides Rosine Ghenin, a resident of the town.

Difficult for the moment to estimate the damage but the flood is already shaping up to be historic and more significant than that of 2016 which was until then the reference. “There are a lot of flooded cellars, there are houses that are flooded but it is not yet time for a precise diagnosis since we are still in flood. We can assume that the peak of the flood has been reached and that ‘we begin a regular but slow decline’specifies Nicolas Honoré, sub-prefect of the Meaux district.

It will take several days for the situation to return to normal in this city where residents are partly cut off from the world, without electricity.