Rain, Mud and Questions in France
VALLS-RUSSELL, JANICE
TOO LITTLE CONTROL? Rain, Mud and Questions in France By Janice Valls-Russell Paris After A fall that saw flooding and mudslides in Mexico, tidal waves in India, and a doubledecker deluge...
...Meteorologists had given advance warning of the storm and issued regular forecasts, but no preventive measures seem to have been taken...
...People waded knee-deep in mud...
...people living downstream were not told what was happening upstream...
...Urban expansion has perhaps been too rapid and uncontrolled in the Languedoc-Roussillon region...
...Survivors report thinking the mountain had split open...
...The course these days seems to be to allow rivers to expand in a wide strip of floodable land along each bank...
...Large tracts of new residential suburbs and industrial parks, constructed on low-level land, were awash...
...Vegetable and fruit growers, who were already hard-pressed this summer by retailers intent on making them keep down their prices, work on narrow profit margins...
...Rows of tall cypress trees shelter vegetable fields and fruit orchards from the winds, namely the cold "tramontana" that comes, as its Catalan name indicates, from beyond the mountains...
...vehicles were piled up in Dahesque sculptures of tortured steel...
...Many drowned, but others got away...
...The plain of Roussillon is to a large extent an expanse designed by man over the decades, and is deservedly famed for its beauty (somewhat diminished after November...
...More attention to prevention and an attitude of humbler respect for nature might in the future help to save a few lives...
...One senses that greater wisdom was once used in deciding where communities should be erected...
...Philippe Masure, a senior geologist, regrets that more money is spent in France on compensation than on preventive measures in the wake of natural disasters...
...Environment Minister Voynet hesitates, however, to advocate a rethinking of agricultural methods...
...Voynet notes regretfully that "once the memory of a natural disaster recedes, there is a tendency to complain when building permits are refused...
...This November 12-13, a torrential 20-inch downpour— 121 gallons per square yard —caused rivers to burst their banks and mud to cascade over hillsides, only to be trapped on the coastal plain...
...others wonder about measures for the future...
...Wine cellars have been flooded...
...No radio bulletins were put out telling everyone to keep off the roads...
...winds blowing inland sent waves of up to 20 feet biting into the coastline...
...The Mediterranean coastline is particularly prone to excessive rainfall...
...Janice Valls-Russell writes about French and Spanish affairs for the NL...
...The 1940 catastrophe proved a mixed blessing for refugees from Spain, where the Civil War had ended in 1939...
...Indeed it happens in France too...
...Small torrent beds, dry 10 months of the year, were overgrown with dense scrub, causing them to overflow during the rainstorms and send water rushing down slopes...
...Starting up a vineyard can take years...
...Elsewhere brush fires had damaged trees, speeding up erosion...
...Thousands of French, English, Dutch and other Europeans have also moved in permanently, many of them retired...
...The situation was made worse by a heavy storm at sea...
...Building permits are granted by the local authorities, usually the town orvillage Mayor, but he is expected to follow national guidelines on the environment and town planning...
...Nevertheless, the recent floods have shown that weather is unpredictable and the cost of tampering with the balance between nature and culture can be high...
...The sea, attractive landscapes and a pleasant climate draw hundreds of thousands of vacationers each year...
...The region has been badly hit, and even though the government has promised swift, massive aid, some economic sectors will be slow to recover...
...This, of course, restricts building in a part of France where the value of property has soared in the past 20 years...
...Environment Minister Dominique Voynet estimates that in the region just affected there have been "in the past 40 years at least 20" rainfalls of more than 16 inches over a period of a day or two...
...By a cruel irony, an exhibition was touring the villages in the Perpignan area, recalling L'Aiguat ("the flood," in Catalan, the local language) of October 1940 in the same plain and the hinterland...
...The walled city of Carcassonne escaped unscathed while the suburbs below it were flooded...
...One dam burst near Perpignan, causing extensive damage, while inland another held, sparing a village...
...The nearby town of Vaison-la-Romaine was almost entirely wiped out in 1992 ; 46 people were killed...
...Decisions are not made any easier by disagreement over some of the steps advocated...
...Sixteen of the worst disasters recorded since 1958 occurred along the Mediterranean coastline, and another four hit Corsica...
...Rain, Mud and Questions in France By Janice Valls-Russell Paris After A fall that saw flooding and mudslides in Mexico, tidal waves in India, and a doubledecker deluge in the United States as hurricanes Floyd and Irene hit southern coastal regions, it's clear that high water does not just happen in Winnie-the-Pooh...
...Whole vineyards have disappeared under a thick layer of mud...
...New restrictions had been recommended for the 10,000 towns and villages that have been classified nationwide as high-risk, but it is estimated that barely one fifth have so far complied with them...
...The sea, noted elderly fishermen, had reclaimed the earth it once covered...
...At least 28 people died, most of them drowned in their cars, and several more were reported missing...
...As rescue workers moved in after this November's storm and residents began to take stock of the damage, questions started being asked...
...The hardest hit area was the southernmost corner of Mediterranean France, a triangle bordered by the last peaks of the eastern Pyrenees, where they plunge into the sea, and the hills of the Montagne Noire north of the lush Roussillon plain...
...Human stubbornness, rather than neglect, appears to have contributed to the natural problems...
...The same is true of winegrowers...
...Apartments and homes have been built on land reclaimed from lagoons and marshes, and in floodable areas near the mouths of rivers...
...Whole communities were destroyed...
...Back then up to 76 inches of rain (459 gallons per square yard) crashed down on villages that cling to the slopes of Canigou Mountain—its cone shape reminiscent of Mount Fuji—which dominates Roussillon...
...More recently, in 1988,11 people died in heavy floods around Nîmes, to the east of Montpellier...
...Elderly people remember drowned cattle being swept along the swollen rivers and forming dams as they tangled with boulders and uprooted trees, causing floods in the lowlands that carried away bridges and a train...
...In a lot of places the family gardens, olive groves and vineyards that once surrounded quaint villages have given way to suburbs of neat pink and ocher residences...
...The owner of a café in Durban, a well-known coppersmiths' village in a steep valley near Carcassonne, saw her car sailing past the window and barely had time to shoo her customers upstairs before water rushed into the room right up to the ceiling...
...Only 40 of those are in the region that has just been flooded...
...Environmentalists argue that too much asphalt exacerbates flooding by making it more difficult for water to rapidly filter into the ground...
...On the morning of November 14, the historic city's inhabitants found themselves on an island...
...Overlooked by Fuji-like Canigou Mountain (the inspiration forpaintings by Juan Gris, music by Pablo Casals and poems by the Catalan poet Joan Maragall) are apricots, peaches, lettuce, eggplants, and tomatoes...
...Meanwhile, the damaged areas are being assessed...
...railway lines lay twisted, as if by an angry giant...
...Within a few hours the wind turned, the skies cleared and the sun was shining again—on desolation...
...In many places there was only a thin layer of loose topsoil that was easily washed away...
...Laborsaving techniques have resulted in vegetables being increasingly grown on acres of plastic sheeting, again slowing water absorption...
...A number of them were being held in makeshift camps set up on the beaches...
...Some officials argue that everything happened too fast and too violently...
...Inland from the coastal plain, the terrain consists of deep, narrow valleys and rocky hills...
...Children at Argelès-sur-Mer, a seaside resort south of Perpignan, remained trapped on the top floor of their school for several hours...
...Several years ago, dams were considered to provide protection...
...many will have to start over from scratch...
...A woman was swept away by a torrent of water and disappeared down a sewage manhole...
...It is feared that some owners will prefer to sell off their land, and that could mean more concrete and tarmac...
...The medieval cathedral and district of Narbonne are built on a hillock that dominates the surrounding plain and lagoons...
...casks, barrels and bottles ruined...
...Typically, sometime in October or November the same amount that London gets in a year will come down in a few hours...
...Supermarkets and shopping malls with extensive parking lots sprawl on the outskirts of big and medium-sized towns...
...more recently, though, they have been considered dangerous...
...and bridges were washed away...
...Several old villages clinging to steep nverbanks that suffered this autumn were casualties in 1940 and 1992 as well...
...All this has been done without any Dutch-style dikes to hold back the sea...
...stretches of road had caved in...
...Modern farming methods don't help matters either...
Vol. 82 • November 1999 • No. 14
