VIDEO – “It’s over”: the radical decision of a resident of flooded Pas-de-Calais

In Pas-de-Calais, municipalities have been flooded for sixteen days.

A situation which leaves residents in deep distress.

Stéphane, whose house is devastated after being invaded by a meter of water, testifies to TF1.

Stéphane returns home, to the small village of Aix-en-Ergny (Pas-de-Calais). Inside his house, mud as far as the eye could see. Everything is upside down. Here, there was a meter of water and Stéphane has just made a radical decision. “Everything is moldy, everything is rotting. I just want to tear the house down. I won’t live in it anymore, it’s over“, he blurted out in front of our camera. “We want to fix it, I won’t fix it. It’s no. I want to leave here, I’ll leave no matter what“.

Stéphane’s life has been completely turned upside down since the first floods two weeks ago. “Today it’s raining a few drops, I’m trembling, I’m afraid. It will come backhe continues. It’s unbearable“.

“Our houses have lost a lot of value”

The floods are leaving residents in a deep state of despair. In the village of Bourthes (Pas-de-Calais), where our report continues, the water has not gone. The road is still a river this Tuesday morning. Patricia and her husband live there, and they ask themselves a lot of questions. They too think about the departure. “My husband is retired, that’s all, we sell and we leaveshe says. But the problem is that our houses, I think they have still lost a lot of value…“The couple was supposed to build two small houses near theirs for rental purposes to improve their retirement, but the construction site has been stopped.”We started, we have the permits, we have everything, but everything is in question“, confides Patricia.

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  VIDEO – “Everything is ruined”: in flooded Pas-de-Calais, houses risk destruction

The vast majority of people plan to stay at home. Because leaving everything is financially often almost impossible. “We don’t know what to think. We do not know…“, deplores a man who says that he does not ask himself the question of leaving: “I’ve been here for 85 years.” Then everyone waits, watching the flow of the rivers and scanning the sky.