“It’s a lot of angst and anxiety.
But we keep smiling, we have no choice,” assures Brigitte Bouzoubaa.
Mother of two children, this Saintaise lives on rue de Taillebourg and, like the other residents of the neighborhood, suffered a third flood of the Charente river in less than six months.
Weariness and despondency are beginning to spread to this sub-prefecture of Charente-Maritime and to the surrounding communes.
“I love my house, I love my neighborhood.
I don't necessarily want to sell... The ideal would be to find solutions to better equip our properties,” says the thirty-year-old who purchased her home 18 months ago at a more affordable price than elsewhere.
“We knew it was floodable, but we didn't think it would be this floody,” she explains.
A few meters away, Marie-Claude Valuet recounts the same struggle.
This septuagenarian bought her property in May 2023: “For my retirement, to have peace of mind… I like it here”.
In recent months, the retiree has moved her furniture and household appliances installed in the basement twice.
But the water, in March, rose too quickly.
“The humidity seeps into the walls up to the first floor,” she comments.
I'm fed up... It's anxiety-inducing, I think about it all the time, as soon as the rain falls.
The worst part is that I lived for 30 years in Chartres, in a flood zone.
I have never been flooded!
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Rue de Taillebourg in Saintes is flooded.
This is the third flood of the Charente in 6 months.
LP/Fabien Paillot
Watch out for high tides
Brigitte Bouzoubaa talks about the endless procedures with her insurance.
“She vents, doesn’t respond.
It’s a descent into hell,” summarizes the thirty-year-old.
In December, floods had already ravaged his parquet floors and the walls of his home.
Bruno Drapron, the mayor of Saintes, for his part, wishes to integrate the “State experimentation project” initiated after the winter floods in Pas-de-Calais.
This system will make it possible to think about new solutions to limit rising water levels and to benefit from funding, hopes the elected official who no longer hides his desire to destroy the most exposed homes.
In the meantime, the town of Saintes is awaiting a further decline in the coming days.
The high tides expected on Sunday and for three days on the coast could complicate the evacuation of the Charente river towards the ocean.
“I’m crossing my fingers that it doesn’t go up any further,” breathes Marie-Claude Valuet.