“As if a dam had blown”: the inhabitants of Peyrehorade, in the south of the Landes, have once again f – franceinfo

More than a hundred homes in Peyrehorade, in the south of the Landes, were empty on Saturday 11 December in the morning: the inhabitants had to evacuate in haste because of the red flood and flood vigilance launched Friday evening by Météo France.

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Most of the inhabitants of Peyrehorade went to relatives. Ramuntcho, for his part, took refuge with his four children in a communal room for the night. “Anyway, with water, we can’t do anything, he launches fatalist. Fire, we can do something, but water is the worst. When it happens, it happens suddenly. There, it’s been two years in a row. ”

Ramuntcho and his family saw the water from the Gaves gathered up right in front of his house over the hours on Friday, like two years ago. “It’s as if a dam had fired. I saw the tree trunks pass through the Gave at 20 km / h, describes her 18-year-old daughter Kelly. It’s impressive. The water arrives, we get carried away, we no longer see us! It’s finish ! I was next door, I was scared, all the same. I have never seen this.” This family is part of the dozen welcomed during the night by the Red Cross, one of whose members describes the mission: “Bring comfort, support, especially warmth, put them in safety and reassure them. We adapt hour by hour, minute by minute. If they need to, we are there.”

The southern part of Peyrehorade is the most affected. In some streets, the water rises to the thighs. Residents are stranded at home, with a lake in front of their door. The firefighters intervene to bring a meal, to make sure that the electricity has not been cut. No question for Marie, 91 years old, to be evacuated. The water has not returned home but is threatening more and more. “I saw the moment when the water was going to arrive here. It never came, with this portal, there … Now, it’s the end that is hard, everything has to be cleaned, with this mud. It ‘ is heavy, eh. “ Nicolas, a firefighter, walks around the neighborhood in diving gear. “We are doing reconnaissance, there are houses where we were unable to make an inventory. We are looking to see if there is someone inside or not, people cut off from all contact because it is their way of life. You have to go and check that they don’t need help. “

A few meters away in a perpendicular street, Mickaël, restaurateur, scrapes the water under his veranda where the customers of his restaurant and pizzeria usually eat. For him, it’s a weekend of “big losses”. “With the electricity cut off, we lose all the raw materials, the stock of cheese, the ham, the steaks … Everything that has spent the night in the turned off fridge. All that is trash. not being able to welcome customers, everything has to be disinfected, everything cleaned … So we’ll see. “

Red vigilance was lifted on Saturday morning in the Landes. The recession began, the peak of the flood was reached at midnight with 5.52 m of water for the combined Gaves. But this decline is not as fast as Didier Sakellarides, the mayor of Peyrehorade, would have liked. “The evolution is surprising, because usually, we have a gave which rises very quickly and which goes down very quickly. And there, we have a gave which does not descend at all. We lost 6 to 8 cm in almost twelve hours. For our inhabitants who are used to arriving quickly after the recession, they will have to wait. Will it be today, tomorrow, maybe even Monday? to say.”

The decline is very slow. The level of Gaves combined remains very high. The mayor of Peyrehorade in the Landes, Didier Sakellarides does not know when the evacuated inhabitants will be able to return home. #severe weather #South West pic.twitter.com/iFxfaoPUoC

– Gilles Gallinaro (@GallinaroG) December 11, 2021

In the meantime, the Red Cross continues to welcome disaster victims who have not been able to return home in two town halls. The inhabitants of Peyrehorade will have to observe the damage and clean up. A test that they know well since they undergo it almost every year at the same time. Like Nathalie who moved into a new apartment and got ready by “playing Tetris” : by putting everything she could in height, “all that sucks”. “We do as we can”, she explained, already looking with regret at her sofa.