19h. Cognac
Saturday was marked by several reports of prowlers in the streets near the Charente, “taking pictures, staring insistently at unoccupied houses”, Mayor Morgan Berger reported to the city’s Crisis Staff this evening.
The municipal and national police are increasing the number of patrols and have removed several strangers, without flagrante delicto however.
At around 11:30 am, a person seen near an empty home was cornered in rue Aristide-Briand by the soldiers of Operation Sentinel and his identity was recorded by the police.
Several reckless motorists also tried to cross the flooded roads without succeeding. Some had to be rescued by the diving firefighters, like Friday at François-1er Park, or were forced to abandon their car, as below in Jarnouzeau (commune of St-Laurent) on the night from Friday to Saturday.
This Saturday in Cognac, the level of Charente rose 3cm (7.57cm at 5pm against 7.54 at 7am). No request for emergency accommodation was received by the City, which had opened the Espace 3000 preventively with the Red Cross. The prefecture is considering a peak at 7.70 Sunday at noon.
6:00 p.m. Saint-Laurent-de-Cognac
Jarnouzeau, in the town of Saint-Laurent de Cognac, is used to flooding even if the 2021 one will be remembered. Marie-Claire and Jean-Luc Belmonte are part of the half-dozen flooded homes (out of 80). For them, the crucial moment will be the balance sheet after the recession.
5:50 p.m. Jarnac
The level of the Charente is 12.45 m in Jarnac. Stable since early morning. This gave Ludovic Benet, one of our readers, time to film these images.
Charente. 2:30 p.m.
About thirty departmental roads are totally or partially cut in the department, mainly in the area of Vindelle, Marcillac-Lanville, Gond-Pontouvre, Taizé-Aizie, Ambérac, Mansle, as well as in the cognacais, aurour de Jarnac, Merpins, Cognac , Mainxe, Mosnac, Bourg-Charente.
About twenty departmental roads are under surveillance. Around Jarnac, several roads are flooded, but passable. This corresponds to the situation identified on Friday late afternoon.
The drop in water levels continues upstream of the Charente and in the Bandiat / Tardoire basin. It began in Angoulême, with a drop of 15 cm compared to yesterday. The water continues to rise in Jarnac and Cognac (the plateau is expected in Jarnac today, in Cognac possibly tomorrow with a water height of 7.70m).
The weather forecast indicates 12mm (up to 20mm occasionally) of rain today and tomorrow, which should not have a significant impact on the Charente River.
The road map is available on the site of the departmental council of Charente https://www.lacharente.fr/no-cache/acces-direct/actualites/details/actualites/inondations-des-routes-departementales/
In Saint-Simeux, the Charente has submerged this summer house.
In Mosnac, the road stops abruptly.
And this deckchair is usually placed several meters from the shore
In Bassac, the piles of the bridge over the river remember the great floods of 1904, 1982 and 1994, as shown by this photograph by Christian Boineau taken this morning.
Cognac. 2 p.m.
Haro on the onlookers! Since the landslide this Saturday morning on the D84 (read below), several people have tried to approach the disaster out of curiosity. Gold, “it’s unstable, very dangerous, we hear cracking”, warns Captain David Bardin, who commands the Cognac firefighting company. Anyone surprised on the site will be fined for having crossed the barriers, complete the police.
In the city center too, amateur photographers increased the tension this morning. In Saint-Jacques, the place de la Levade and that of Solençon are underwater, while the bridge offers a spectacular view of the river. Their success caused an influx of cars with occasional traffic jams, saturation of parking spaces and a rant from traders.
Cognac. 13h30
Life without gas has started in 298 homes in Cognac, to which GRDF cut the supply as a safety measure on Friday evening. The inhabitants only discovered it on Saturday morning, as explained by local resident Willy Navarre.
Fléac. 12h30
While the trend is predicted to recede, this photo, taken by Ludovic Jacques, one of our readers, “on February 5, 2021 at 5:36 pm at 18 rue de la bainade 16730 Fléac” allows us to materialize the flood that we escaped.
Charente downstream. 12:20.
In Châteauneuf-sur-Charente, the situation seems “stabilized, at 19.20 m”, according to Mickaël Villéger, deputy mayor. The municipal services deplore for the moment only a few flooded cellars. In Saint-Even-les-Carrières, same observation. “We have only one house that has been hit hard, with 30 cm of water inside”, says Fabien Delisle, the mayor. But the chosen one fears that other homes will take water “if it goes up 20 cm, and the rain comes back”.
Angouleme. 11h.
The water begins to flow back to Angoulême. Relief for Gérard Dezier, the mayor of Gond-Pontouvre. “We are on a significant decline, between 15 and 25 cm depending on the sector,” he says. The municipal services continue to evacuate residents who so wish. On the Vigicrues site, the water level curve has been slowly decreasing since last night, going from 4.81 m at 7 p.m. to 4.68 m at 9 a.m. this morning.
Conversely, the water continues to rise downstream. In Jarnac, the Charente gained 2 cm overnight. The odds were 12.45 m at 9 a.m. this morning. In Cognac, the level rose by 5 cm, to 7.54 cm this morning.
Cognac. 9h.
A major landslide occurred during the night from Friday to Saturday in Cognac, in the sort of town towards Boutiers on the D84, very close to the Château de Bagnolet de Hennessy.
Large rocks are detached from the stony wall which overhangs an arm of the flooded Charente, near the Bagnolet footbridge.
Small landslides are frequent in this area located at the edge of the town.
The Department has been warned and the D84 will be closed to access during the morning. It is now a question of studying the possible damage to the gangway and preventing the risk of additional landslides.
This incident completely isolates the rue de Boutiers from automobile traffic since it is flooded on the Saint-Jacques side and is now blocked by a rock on the Boutiers side (even if in principle, it was already forbidden to drive there).
The incident was revealed at the 8:30 am meeting of the City’s crisis unit, where an update was also made on the gas cuts operated last night by GRDF for security reasons.
The gas company envisaged up to 500 cuts overnight, there were ultimately 298 homes affected and the prospect of additional cuts is receding.
“I informed the regional director of GRDF that they could have anticipated and warned people so that they could find other means of equipping themselves, said Mayor Morgan Berger. We were joined by a lady this morning, where it is 15 degrees. “
During the night, three offenses for crossing barriers were sanctioned by the police in the flooded areas.
The City has opened a hotline (05 45 36 55 36) accessible from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday. There are still concrete blocks but all the available gateways have been deployed.
An emergency shelter has been set up at Espace 3000 by the Red Cross. No request has been registered yet.
According to the public information service Vigicrues, the water rose less quickly in Cognac during the night from Friday to Saturday than during the previous night: 5cm against 10cm. It reached 7.54m this Saturday shortly before 8am against 7.49m Friday at 7pm.
The Prefecture estimates that the peak will take place on Sunday in Cognac and could reach 7.70, a less alarming forecast than that of the day before, which spoke of 7.80m. As a reminder, the 2007 flood rose to 7.16m, that of 1994 to 8.04m and that of 1982 to 8.45m.
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