Since this Saturday, March 12, in the western part of Languedoc, there are only cut roads, flooded houses, meadows and submerged vineyards.
The real deluge, of the Cévennes type, caused muddy overflows of several rivers: the Cesse in the Aude, the Jaur, the Vernazobre, tributaries of the Orb, in the Hérault.
A river that has experienced a considerable flood, above that of 2014, between Béziers and its mouth.
The slums of the Faubourg in Béziers, subject to flooding, were flooded on Saturday afternoon.
Downstream, in Sauvian, the alert had sounded on Saturday at 10 p.m. at the boss of the La Gabinelle campsite.
“The PC floods informed us of a significant rise in water levels in our establishment.
We sounded the general mobilization around us.
This is where it is important to have friends, because we had to save the caravans of our customers, scattered all over the campsite.
And we managed to move them all: 67 caravans to move between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., in the rain, in the middle of the night,” says Robert Cros, who manages this three-star family establishment.
Up to 400 mm of water
Sunday afternoon, he progressed in his campsite with water up to his waist to try to spot the boats of the customers who had regained their freedom.
The river is 300 m away, three plots of vines from the campsite, but its level continued to rise until it licked the wheels of the caravans saved from the waters.
La Gabinelle was to reopen on April 1, with a good occupancy rate.
There are two weeks left to restore everything...
In Sauvian, the center of the village also had its feet in the water, while conversely, Sérignan withstood the river rather well.
“It's higher than 2014, but the equipment put in place, hammers and pumps, has ensured the protection of the village.
The many seaside campsites were spared, ”explains Stéphane Duplan, general manager of Sérignan services, who feared a slight increase in the water level on Sunday evening.
In the space of two days, it fell on the heights of the Aude and the Hérault up to 400 mm of water.
There are no casualties but two people were fished out in extremis on Saturday evening between Montpellier and Béziers in the torrential waters of secondary rivers.
This Sunday evening, in the Aude as in the Hérault, the orange rain flood alerts were lifted.