The maximum state of vigilance remains active in the departments of Vienne and Indre-et-Loire, Sunday March 31, due to a risk of very strong flooding, the level of which could approach that which was observed in 1913. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced that a person was missing, “a person canoeing on one of the rivers”, in the department of Haute-Vienne.
Saturday around 4 p.m., in Aixe-sur-Vienne, 10 kilometers west of Limoges, “witnesses confirm having seen a kayaker in difficulty on the Vienne. They judged from afar that he had difficulty controlling. It was from there that searches were launched over around ten kilometers, the secretary general of the Haute-Vienne prefecture, Laurent Monbrun, explained to Agence France-Presse. The search carried out by the gendarmerie resumed on Sunday morning, after an interruption during the night, he added.
“The flood seems to be receding,” Mr. Darmanin nevertheless clarified on Sunday morning. In total, the floods of the Creuse and the Vienne affect 34 municipalities, which have deployed their municipal protection plan. The Indre-et-Loire prefecture announced on Sunday morning that around a hundred people had been evacuated, including 73 residents of a nursing home located in the town of Île-Bouchard, on the banks of Vienne.
Sixteen roads are cut in the department, where 200 gendarmes and firefighters are mobilized. But the floods are currently less severe than feared on Saturday evening. “There was damage, but ultimately there was not the intensity that we feared,” explained the prefect of Indre-et-Loire, Patrice Latron, during a press conference. The prefecture nevertheless warns against “phenomena of rupture or overflowing of dikes” and of the dangerousness of “zones below ground, in particular underground car parks”.
“For me, it’s the flood of the century”
In Vienne, a department placed on red alert for floods, like that of Indre-et-Loire, the Creuse river reached 6.78 m at Roche-Posay, exceeding the historic flood of 1982. It should rise again at the end in the morning and approaching the record of 1896, explained a Vigicrues technician on site to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The water rushed into several houses located on the banks, without reaching the city center, located higher up. “I have lived in La Roche-Posay since the 1960s, I have never seen this. For me, it’s the flood of the century. The racecourse was already flooded at the edge, but there it became a lake,” testified Jean-Louis Olivier, president of the racing society, in front of the racecourse completely swallowed up by the river.
In this department, 150 firefighters and gendarmes are mobilized, and around ten roads have been cut by the rising waters, the prefecture said. The drinking water network was cut off in three municipalities in the south of Vienne after the floods the day before, as well as in three municipalities in Indre-et-Loire. Drinking water distributions are organized. On the Creuse River, “we are beyond the ten-year flood. I don’t yet know if we can talk about a 100-year flood,” declared the prefect of Indre-et-Loire.
Four departments on orange alert
In Indre, currently placed on yellow alert for floods and storms, the prefecture announced in a press release on Sunday morning: “The situation has improved, but vigilance is required. » If the sections of the Creuse median and the Indre upstream “are in a recession phase” announces the prefecture, “37 homes still remain without electricity”, she specifies.
In addition, Météo France has also placed the departments of Charente, Charente-Maritime, Gironde and Dordogne on orange “flood” alert. Haute-Vienne is no longer concerned. Orange “avalanche” vigilance has been launched in the Alpes-Maritimes for the Mercantour massif, from Sunday afternoon.