A few days after flooding linked to storm Ciaran, the Pas-de-Calais department has been on red alert since Monday, November 6 at 4 p.m., due to an “exceptional flood” expected from the coastal Aa and Liane rivers. , announced Météo-France and Vigicrues.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, reported on Calais.
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, the showers took on a more intense stormy character than expected, giving significant accumulations in a few hours over the western basins of Pas-de-Calais.
The flood of the Aa, described as “exceptional” by Vigicrues, is “higher than the historic flood of 2002” and “will spread downstream to Wizernes, where widespread and very damaging overflows are expected in the second part day Tuesday”, details the organization. The Liane flood is also identified as “exceptional”. Red alert applies until Wednesday evening.
Blendecques, near Saint-Omer, woke up with its feet in the water on Tuesday morning, and residents came out of their homes to assess the damage, noted Agence France-Presse (AFP). Several streets are flooded and a few people have been sheltered.
“It’s a disaster,” said Maxime Delianne, mayor of Maresville, where the water rose more than a meter in some houses on Monday afternoon. The Dordonne, a small river which crosses the town, “completely flooded the village”, he laments.
Seven people injured
The TER Boulogne-Etaples line will be interrupted until 3 p.m. Tuesday, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture announced in a press release. Fifty-five municipalities in the department were flooded or partially flooded Monday at 6 p.m., according to the prefecture.
The Pas-de-Calais prefecture asked the residents concerned not to take their cars, to stay at home on an upper floor and to only evacuate on orders from the authorities. “I call on all Pas-de-Calais residents to exercise the greatest vigilance and to respect the instructions of the authorities,” wrote the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, on X (ex-Twitter).
The Pas-de-Calais prefecture has decided to close schools in around thirty additional municipalities in the department from Tuesday noon, due to expected flooding around Boulogne-sur-Mer. This decision comes after the closure, decided the day before, of schools in 36 other municipalities, including Saint-Omer, 15,000 inhabitants.
The Pas-de-Calais prefecture asked the residents concerned not to take their cars, to stay at home on an upper floor and to only evacuate on orders from the authorities.
Monday morning, a person was slightly injured by lightning that struck a home in Alincthun, and “a tragedy was narrowly avoided in Zoteux, where a person stuck in their car almost drowned,” said the prefecture.
