WEATHER: Many streams are full in the area around Pas-de-Calais after heavy rains and placed on orange alert for possible floods
The Pas-de-Calais was hit, in the night of Monday to Tuesday, by slight floods. “Cumulative rainfall” have notably overflowed the Liane, a river that flows into the Channel at Boulogne-sur-Mer.
“Since Monday late afternoon, continuous and significant rains have watered the west of the Artois-Picardie basins,” said Vigicrues, Tuesday, in a newsletter. “These rains, greater than expected, have strongly reacted Liane […] and caused a large flood of the river.” “If the rainy episode is over, the stream should continue to go downstream in the morning,” said the organization.
According to the prefecture of the department, a dozen municipalities are concerned by the flood of this watercourse. Ten people were evacuated and 120 homes were affected in Saint Etienne au Mont. In Hesdigneul-lès-Boulogne, the primary school was flooded. “The mayor has asked the families to pick up the children and keep them that day,” the prefecture added in a statement.
“Forty years we had not seen such a strong flood”
“A tributary of the Liane, the Faude, has overflowed strongly, it was at least 40 years since we had not seen such a strong flood,” said the mayor of Wirwignes, André Goudalle. Several houses, as well as some amenities of the town, including a multipurpose room and a library, were flooded, “always between 5 and 10 centimetres.”
In the municipality of Isques, “we evacuated the fragile people who wanted to leave,” announced the mayor, Bertrand Dumaine. Further downstream, in Saint-Léonard, Mayor Jean-Loup Lesaffre said he was relieved of a “low tide”, which should allow “to evacuate floods easily”.
Inland, the Hem River, placed in yellow vigilance by Vigicrues, could reach “first overflow levels this Tuesday morning”. However, the authorities believe that all the rivers concerned should begin to decline during the day.
