Par
Margaux Desdet
Published on
Dec 10 2024 at 7:26 p.m.
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THE floods of October 2024caused by storm Kirk, hit the town of Crécy-la-Chapelle, in Seine-et-Marnehead on. In some homes, the rise in water reached 1.70 meters. The mayor, Christine Autenzio, draws up a damning assessment, but insists on solidarity and reconstruction efforts which follow this natural disaster, which still leaves after-effects two months later.
A shattering impact
“We were in a period of war, somewhere: nothing existed anymore, everything was closed, people were being killed… It was an unrealistic moment, when life stopped », confides Christine Autenzio, highlighting the atmosphere of shock and desolation which has invaded the city.
We were very impacted. Usually, Crécy-la-Chapelle is a lively town, but here we experienced a terrible ordeal.
The numbers are impressive. Approximately 250 households were affected, 79 businesses closed out of the hundred in operation and costs linked to the damage estimated at approximately 6 M€. In total, 41 stores have still not reopened, and some will still remain closed for an indefinite period.
The floods also submerged public buildings, including the town hall, affected by the wedding hall and the village hall, association premises which also had to stop their activities, the Saint-Georges church or the Collegiate Church making it impossible to hold the masses which have since been held in Voulangis and Villiers-sur-Morin.
“It is a catastrophe, both human and material. The old Créçois never saw that,” adds the elected official, who evokes the rarity and intensity of such an event in the history of the city.
An accumulation of aggravating factors
The exceptional phenomenon, which the mayor of Crécy-la-Chapelle Christine Autenzio hopes could be the 100-year floods, was caused by an accumulation of several unusual climatic factors. Indeed, the rainfall was particularly high with 30% more water compared to other years. The soils and fields were therefore saturated with water when Storm Kirk passed through on October 9, which dumped a month's worth of rain in just one day. All this therefore did not favor the natural flow of the Morin.
In addition, the following question is at the heart of the discussions: Was Crécy-la-Chapelle a collateral victim of a risk management plan aimed at protecting Paris? This is in fact a question that was asked to the deputy and former minister, Franck Riester, who responded in the negative.
Immediate measures to cope
Faced with the disaster, the priority was tohelp residents and traders get back on their feet. “The day after the floods, we wanted Crécy to return to normal,” explains the mayor. Municipal services immediately undertook a city cleaningditches, led a recovery of certain roads and purges in certain streets. To put everything back together, 70 skips were deposited in the most affected areas. These are approximately 60 m3 of storage which were noted by the technical services who moved, street by street, for more than a month.
“We went through this stage with help from the Department, the Coulommiers Pays de Brie agglomeration community and other mayors from the surrounding area who volunteered. There was solidarity,” explains Christine Autenzio.
Of the emergency reception centers were put in place for residents to identify their needs and to provide them with financial and logistical support. There Coulommiers medico-psychological emergency cell also took charge of certain citizens and traders.
For its part, Châteauform' has freed up around fifty rooms to make them available to disaster victims at a very preferential rate. This temporary support provided some comfort to around fifteen families in distress. “When you are in this situation and you feel that there is warmth, that you are welcomed into a pretty room, a beautiful environment… It feels a little good, you breathe,” says Christine Autenzio.
In addition, the municipality allocated 10,000 euros to the Municipal Social Action Center (CCAS) to provide direct support to families.
As for traders, the Chamber of Commerce has organized hotlines to advise them and support them in their restart efforts.
The financial challenges of reconstruction
The town hall estimates €170,000 the cost of the damage borne directly by the community. “For us, it’s happening in a way that we didn’t plan for financially at all,” emphasizes Christine Autenzio, who two years ago took over a weakened town hall in this area. “Last year, we brought the figures back into balance, without being able to make major plans. These costs come on top of our situation and impact us even more. We will see how to do this limit the damage to the future 2025 budget », she explains.
Calls have been launched to the Ile-de-France Region and the Department of Seine-et-Marne for subsidies.
Long-term risk management
As the city slowly begins to recover, Christine Autenzio insists on the need for more proactive risk management. “The fear is permanent as soon as it rains,” she explains, pointing to the vulnerability of Crécy-la-Chapelle to flooding. The phenomenon of “Venice Briarde”, nickname of the town, is repeated regularly. With four floods in 2024in February, August, September and October, the mayor calls for serious planning and the identification of retention basins to better manage water and avoid new disasters. All this, in conjunction with the Smage (mixed water development and management union) of 2 Morin.
“We hope that a program, with a chronology, dates, will be presented to us, and that it will be accelerated,” develops Christine Autenzio.
We must also protect the communities that have been affected, otherwise tomorrow no one will want to settle here and it would be a shame to let the community fall asleep while it is very much alive.
The mayor still wants one clarification: “When we live in a risk zone, we know that at some point flooding is possible. We must therefore at least plan… We must help those who need it to equip themselves preventively, but we must also everyone takes responsibility depending on where he lives. »
Looking to the future
Despite the scale of the task that remains to be accomplished and a still long road to reconstruction, Christine Autenzio expresses a desire to give hope to the city. “I would like to make the city happy. There have been challenges, it’s over, we need to think about what’s next,” she concludes. During this end-of-year holiday season, she wants the city to look to the future with joyful and unifying projectslike the Christmas market. “Life is also that. We need to be back into lighter things,” she insists.
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