After a trying weekend, it is still time to be cautious this Monday in the Center-West. Indre-et-Loire remains classified as red alert for the day, while Vienne was reclassified on Sunday evening as orange alert by Météo France.
Furthermore, Gironde, Dordogne, Charente, Charente-Maritime and Côte-d'Or are also on orange alert for the same reason, according to the Météo France bulletin. Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence also joined the list this Monday morning, i.e. ten departments on orange alert in total for the risk of flooding?
🔴 1 department in Red
🔶 10 departments in Orange (https://t.co/CSYEovTI83) pic.twitter.com/jVQHvFmRAl
— VigiMétéoFrance (@VigiMeteoFrance) April 1, 2024
Vigicrues, the government tool for monitoring watercourses, is maintaining its red vigilance this Monday morning in the face of the “exceptional flood” in the Vienne of Tours. The Arroux, Dronne, and Isle rivers downstream and the Brenne as well as the Charente river upstream are placed on orange alert, reporting “significant floods”.
Change to #vigilanceOrange floods of the #Durance (departments 04, 13, 83, 84).
Stay informed at https://t.co/df6JDFOHeL pic.twitter.com/yw0X4Oa1Hp
— Vigicrues (@Vigicrues) April 1, 2024
“The flood peak is expected in Chinon early in the morning. Significant floods are spreading on the Dronne downstream, the Isle downstream and the Charente upstream. Heavy rains have affected the Morvan since Sunday, causing flooding on the Brenne and the Arroux", with "significant overflows" expected from this Monday on these two rivers, details the service in its latest bulletin this Monday morning . “Apart from these sections, the overflows are localized. » It also signals the passage into orange vigilance of the Durance, in the South-East.
In Haute-Vienne, Vienne and Indre-et-Loire, the government has launched “the accelerated procedure for recognition of the state of natural disaster”, announced Sunday evening the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. Over the weekend, more than 200 evacuations took place in Indre-et-Loire and Vienne. In total throughout the Central-West zone, more than 450 firefighters were mobilized and around thirty roads were flooded, according to a police source.
Hundreds of evacuations planned in Chinon
In Indre-et-Loire, several hundred people were evacuated on Sunday evening in a suburb of Chinon and in the surrounding villages in anticipation of the rising waters of the Vienne. “Extremely serious alert (…) Leave your home after shutting off the water, gas and electricity,” residents could read on their mobile phones.
In total, “750 people would potentially be affected by preventive evacuations linked to rising water levels in the areas of Chinon, Savigny-en-Véron, Beaumont-en-Véron and Saint-Germain-sur-Vienne,” the prefecture announced. of Indre-et-Loire a little earlier in a press release. Two emergency accommodation centers, a gymnasium and a leisure center, “will be armed by civil security associations”, she specified, while 150 gendarmes and firefighters are still specifically engaged on the crisis.
VIDEO. Indre-et-Loire and Vienne on red flood alert, a kayaker missing
Sunday evening, at 10 p.m., the Vienne rose to 5.24 m in Chinon, almost touching the arches of the bridge, carrying away several tree trunks in its passage. In Nouâtre, a town of 900 inhabitants, the water rose more than six meters in 36 hours, exceeding the level reached on January 8, 1982. Further north, on the Creuse river, it even rose to 7, 34 m at Descartes, above the flood of March 4, 1923.
Until Sunday evening, the evacuations had only concerned around 150 people in the department. Near Chinon, the 90 residents of an Ehpad (accommodation establishment for dependent elderly people) in the town of Île Bouchard, on the edge of Vienne, were transferred to Tours and Loches, according to France Bleu.
The Vienne overflows at #L'Ile Bouchard #Indre-et-Loire this Sunday March 31, 2024 pic.twitter.com/LwAwO37rfr
— NR Tours (@NR_Tours) March 31, 2024
Kayaker still missing
Sunday evening, a kayaker was still wanted in Haute-Vienne, after an alert given on Saturday around 4 p.m. by several witnesses who had seen the man "in difficulty" from the town of Aixe-sur-Vienne 10 km to the west of Limoges. Throughout the day, the gendarmerie carried out searches "up to the border with Charente", as the day before, with a helicopter in support. But the operations yielded nothing. They will resume Monday morning, in an area now in decline and without particular vigilance.
This Monday morning, the prefect of Vienne indicated on the X network that more than 300 firefighters and gendarmes had been engaged in the department, with more than 200 operations carried out and nearly 1,000 calls received. Over the weekend, several roads were cut, with eight departmental roads closed to traffic on Sunday afternoon, and around forty homes were evacuated in the department, according to France Bleu. An alert message was sent to residents of around ten municipalities.
In Châtellerault for example, the Vienne, which normally reaches a level of 1.50 m, peaked at 5.32 m on Sunday at 1 p.m., recounts La Nouvelle République. The quays of the Grand-rue were submerged and many local residents were stuck in their homes while waiting for the flood to recede.
“Following the severe bad weather of the last two days, Creuse, Gartempe and Vienne reached exceptional peaks in height linked to a rainfall of 100 mm in two days, the equivalent of two months of rain,” said Sunday the Vienne prefecture in a press release.
Also read: Flooded fields and roads, rescue, evacuations… images of floods in Vienne and Indre-et-Loire
Drinking water networks cut
In Indre-et-Loire, the Montrésor catchment station was affected by flooding, notes France Bleu. Despite the efforts of the authorities to put the borehole back into service, the drinking water distributed from this catchment “may not meet the quality limits required for human consumption”. An order restricting the use of water for food purposes for the populations has therefore been issued for the municipalities of Montrésor, Beaumont-Village and Chémillé sur Indrois, from this Monday at noon and until further notice. Preventive distributions of bottled water took place in the three municipalities and surrounding hamlets.
In Vienne, after the flooding of pumping stations in the vicinity of La Trimouille, in the south-east of the department, the authorities advised residents of eight municipalities not to consume tap water, setting up water distributions. 'potable water. The drinking water network was cut in three municipalities in the south of the department.