“The rise in water was impressive”

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The emotion is still raw. “Every November 16, I think about it, because it was traumatic,” confides Jacqueline Durand, her eyes moist.

There is 50 years old, in 1974Jacqueline's house was found flooded in Vitré (Ille-et-Vilaine). It is located at 6 rue Pasteur, near the washhouse and therefore the Vilaine.

In her family cocoon, where she lives with her husband and her very young son, Jacqueline – then pregnant – still remembers these significant hours.

“There was a lot of mud”

“It had rained a lot the previous days and there was no dam yet at the time,” explains Jacqueline. The Vilaine swells hour by hour and rue Pasteur quickly finds itself threatened with flooding.

“The evening before, Friday the 15th, my husband often looked in the cellar. The city agents came by and told us that it would be good to remove everything we had in our cellar,” recalls La Vitréenne, 27 years old at the time.

With her husband, they put their things back together. “I was pregnant with my daughter and gave birth four days later. Everyone told me not to stay there, but I wanted to stay at home,” Jacqueline smiles today.

In the middle of the night – “at four in the morning” – the newlyweds and their son are alerted by sirens.

We went down and we could see that the river was rising. Around 8 a.m., our back patio was flooded.

The couple then put the kitchen or living room furniture on concrete blocks to save what could be saved. “But the rise of the water was impressive. » Up to 50 centimeters will be raised in their completely renovated house. “We stayed upstairs all day. »

Faced with the risk, the young parents decide to join family in Argentré-du-Plessis in the evening. “I don’t remember if we went out in a boat or not, but we had to leave everything open. »

They will eventually return home. “The water was starting to come back, but there was lots of mud. We spent the next day cleaning with water jets. People came to help us. »

René Crinon, the mayor at the time, will come see them to get some news.

I gave birth a few days later, but when I came back with the baby, the walls were still very wet. It was a very difficult period.

“We were afraid”

In the weeks and months after the floods, it is time for questions for local residents. How did this part of the city end up under water?

“My husband, who had a hairdressing salon on the ground floor, was the head of the association of traders and craftsmen on rue Pasteur. They pushed for the construction of the dam. We went to almost every municipal council meeting,” recalls this former municipal councilor from 1995 to 2008.

Despite the construction of the dam, she and her husband remain on their guard. “We were afraid when it rained a lot. My husband, who had been more traumatized than me, left one evening to see the level of the dam. »

Dams that the couple regularly visited for several years before leaving their home.

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