With the floods in Caen, memories of 2001 resurface for Christine and Anne-Marie

At the beginning of January 2025, in certain houses in the lower part of Louvignynear Caen (Calvados), theworry rose at the same time as the waters of the Orne, despite the presence from Sunday January 5, 2025 of aquabarriers, a removable protective device against flooding.

A concern especially felt among residents who have experienced the last flooding of a home in 2001before the construction of the dike.

Water rises one meter in houses

Retired for 15 years and head of the AMAP in Louvigny, Christine Avignon, then a nursery school teacher, installed in Louvigny in 1999with her husband and their two children, in the accommodation adjoining the school. At the end of December 1999, they experienced the famous storm, but also a flood of the Orne. The river entered their home.

We had raised the furniture and appliances, but the water rose about sixty centimeters on the ground floor. When the electricity went out, we spent a week at my brother’s house in Caen. The lower part of the school was also flooded. We brought the furniture upstairs and the students were welcomed to the primary school, further up in the village.

In 2001, the river water stopped at the first exterior steps. But the river overflowed several times each winter. So, in class, the furniture was taken upstairs every weekend, just in case.

“Great solidarity between neighbors”

During times of crisis, local residents participated in meetings every evening with elected officials, at school if the town hall was flooded.

I remember great solidarity between neighbors. In particular, we helped each other raise the furniture. The town hall lent us waders to go get things from home. Then came the return home, the big cleaning, this fine mud encrusted everywhere, the walls soaked with water, a strong smell of humidity.

In 2004, the Avignon family moved a little further up in the neighborhood. “Today, despite the presence of aquabarriers, we remain vigilant and a little anxious.«

In 1995, he bought a canoe to return home!

Vice-president of Air de Fête, municipal councilor from 2001 to 2020, Anne-Marie Robert arrived from Châteauroux (Indre) in Louvigny, Grande Rue, in 1990, with her husband and their three children. It experienced floods in 1993, 1995, 1999 and 2001.

“When we bought our house, nothing indicated to us that such flooding was possible and we did not know the area. In 1993, we discovered our home was flooded. These 30 cm of water seemed terrible to us“, Anne-Marie Robert. “In 1995, my husband surprised me when he came home from work with a canoe he had just bought. We still have it! »

In 1999, the water rose to 95 cm. The elders told us: when the water is at the War Memorial, you have four hours to put your furniture back up. The town hall lent us concrete blocks to do this.

“In 1999, we moved upstairs and stayed there as long as we had electricity,” continues Anne-Marie Robert. “The only outages were those of the municipality, because none of our power sockets on the ground floor were fixed less than a meter high. Without electricity, we were staying with Loupiaciens further up in the town.”

The firefighters came to pick up the children in a canoe

Anne-Marie Robert remembers funny scenesduring these floods experienced more than 20 years ago.

During the week, firefighters in canoes waited for our children at the window, at flood level, to take them to the castle crossroads where they picked up the bus to middle school or high school. So they crossed our ground floor, from the stairs to the window, in their underwear, in the cold water.

She also remembers preparing veal blanquette with her feet, in bundles, in the water. “These floods lasted three to eight days« .

“Dry for 24 years, but a worry every time the water rises”

When the flood receded, the walls were cleaned with a compressor, “because they were coated as on the outside to a height of one meter. The insurer lent us air dehumidifiers.” Finally, Anne-Marie and her husband redid and moved their kitchen, into the scullery, raised by two steps.

” We are dry for 24 yearsbut a little worry comes back with each rise in the water,” confides Anne-Marie today. “Last week, fortunately, did not coincide with a high tide which would have slowed the flow of the river. »

From our correspondent Nicolas Kwarcielinski

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