Floods: the Nord and Pas-de-Calais still on orange alert but the recession is
The departments of North and Pas de Calais remain classified until Wednesday afternoon in orange vigilance “Floods” but the decline of the Lys river, a black spot in recent days, began on Tuesday afternoon, announced the prefecture and firefighters.
Read also: Flood. Nord and Pas-de-Calais still in orange vigilance, a person found dead
A “very slow decline”
“The Lys Plaine basin remains on orange alert given the water levels which have stabilized at a high level”, the North Prefecture said in a statement, but “The rains announced during the night by Météo France should not hinder the onset of the decline observed upstream of the Lys”.
A decline confirmed by the firefighters of the fire and rescue service (Sdis) of the North, who however noted Tuesday afternoon a “Very slow decline” in the town of Saint-Venant, between Saint-Omer and Béthune.
According to the Vigicrues bulletin, the weak rains expected on Wednesday will also be “Without consequence on the current floods in the Lys basin” but orange vigilance remains maintained “Particularly in the Merville sector”, due to the propagation of a flood wave.
Departmental roads cut, level crossing submerged, houses flooded … Since Sunday, the two departments have experienced severe disturbances related to a violent rainy episode.
In three days, the firefighters of the North carried out 103 interventions related to these bad weather and 171 people sheltered.
The Sdis du Pas-de-Calais had made 177 interventions between Sunday and Monday.
“It was madness! I had to turn around fifty times ”
Monday morning, an octogenarian was discovered dead in her flooded cave in Borre, in the North. According to the gendarmerie, this lady, “Prone to discomfort, would have fallen on the stairs” and then drowned. The water had risen to a height of 80 cm in his cellar.
According to a publication of Sdis du Nord on Facebook, the level of the Lys was stabilized early Tuesday afternoon at 2.88 m in Estaires (North). During the flood of December 1999, it had reached 2.94 m.
“I work in Bailleul (North, at the Belgian border, Editor’s note) and the route to get there (Monday) was madness! I had to turn around fifty times ”, testified to AFP Rémi Parreira, sales representative, met in one of the small towns of the Lys plain which still had their feet in the water on Tuesday. “This is really the first time that we know this, me that worries me”, he confided.