Deadly floods of November 1999: 25 years later, “we still talk about it all the time” in Durban, a village in Aude destroyed by bad weather

Before they take on the proportions we know, Michèle Pla considers the rain which begins to fall at the end of the day of November 12, 1999 as an opportunity. “There was already a significant drought, so we were happy!” The one who was director of the town's nursery school, then retired for two years, just picked up her grandson after school and returned home. Michèle Pla lives upstairs, which will protect most of her house from future floods and also explains why part of her family is taking refuge in her home.

“At 9 p.m., my son brought his two young boys to me because the water was rising behind his house. Half an hour later, my daughter-in-law arrived: at their house, part of the ceiling had just collapsed Even at my house, it was raining so hard that the water was seeping in. I remember a resident who left his house with his baby held at arm's length to prevent him from drowning.. The night passes, and Michèle Pla understands that this climatic event is disfiguring her town.

“The next day, it was horror. Everything was destroyed. From perception, only the four walls remained. All the businesses were affected. And when I discovered the state of my nursery school…” Added to this desolation is a feeling of isolation which will also last for several days. “To reach Durban, we had to make a huge detour. We were like cut off from the world”.

However, the person concerned does not let herself be discouraged and quickly commits herself to those who have lost everything. “Régis Barailla, the mayor at the time, called me in the street when he had just seen me passing and offered me to participate in the activity of the municipal center, by taking care of the management of goods . I of course accepted, I have been volunteering all my life.”. Michèle Pla works on site with three other Durbanians, also assisting in the gradual implementation of more comprehensive aid.

I took the liberty of calling out to Lionel Jospin to ask him not to forget our little ones

“Soldiers arrived from Brignoles to take part in the cleaning, they lived on the first floor of the home. Young people, around twenty or thirty. They stayed at least a month, they were in the village all day”. Locally, the retiree notices a real “outpouring of solidarity” between villagers, and the State does not remain indifferent to the fate of Durban either. “Lionel Jospin, then Prime Minister, went there. I took the liberty of calling on him, to ask him not to forget our children and their school. He put his hand on my shoulder and replied. : 'I will rebuild your school' and we got the money!”

Michèle Pla doesn't beat around the bush. “The fire station, the gendarmerie, the youth center, the swimming pool, the bridges… They rebuilt the whole village”. But if seen from the outside, Durban has healed its wounds, the trauma is still there. “We still talk about these floods all the time. As soon as it rains a little hard, there is always someone to say: 'I hope it doesn't feel like 1999!'”