Floods in Sorède

Been there? Done that? Where to go in the Pyrénées-Orientales

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Kate
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Floods in Sorède

Post by Kate »

Hope the worst is over but more damage. If you have a holiday home, it might be a good time to take advantage of kind neighbours and ask them to check it out.
http://www.lindependant.fr/2011/11/22/l ... ,86952.php
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Post by blackduff »

I have quite a bit of damage on my property. I lost about 4+ oaks about ten meters high each. They left towards the center of Sorede. The river rose about four meters high, which took my chain link fence (25 meters long) which was over 3 meters above the normal river height. My pump, which was tethered with one of the oak trees, seems to have gone down the river. I have to wait until the level drops. Possibly this may be covered with the insurance but I'm not sure.

The road comes to my house has had a tremendous amount of erosion. The road now has sheer cliffs down to the river-drop of about 15 meters. This is about 5 meters from the edge of the road.

It hurts!

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Sorede flooding

Post by tubs »

How distressing for you, it must have been awful to witness the devastation nature was causing. We have just seen photos on the L'Independant website of Vallee Heureuse and it looks dreadful.
It's going to be a difficult time for you in the coming weeks, let's hope your insurance pays up.
Thank heavens that you escaped any injury.
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Post by Existentialbricks »

I've been going around and checking properties all day, and fortunately found nothing as serious as your damage Blackduff, I hope you can get it sorted quickly.

What has been interesting for me, not having been here all that long is seeing the rivers swell. I knew these enormous trenches and gorges must be here for a reason! Today at Amélie I could understand how so much damage could have been caused in the famous flooding in the 1940's - I can't remember the local name for it, someone told me once, and it's obviously lodged deeply in the local historical psyche. Pity I don't have a memory!
Living in the dryer Aspres It's also been interesting to see the dry concrete trench here turn into first a stream and then a small river. I feel grateful to live on the side of a hill at these times- as long as we don't slide off it!
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Post by Sav »

Sorry to read about what has happened to you blackduff & the rest of Sorede
As long as you are ok, that is the main thing.
The village will recover, stay positive.

Sav
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Post by blackduff »

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Post by interiors66 »

this was my house in st.genis .luckily not too much damage was done , but we are still cleaning up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iviQlCxk ... e=youtu.be
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Post by opas »

There are some quite frightening scenes among that lot!

We appear to have come out of it quite lightly, just a damp garage .

I visited various properties yesterday and have another couple to go. nothing more serious than plant pots soil overflowing and leaves washing into a swimming pool fortunatly.
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Post by Kate »

Flipp!n 'eck Dave. Glad you're all OK. Just the noise of the rain is quite frightening. Dogs OK?
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Post by sue and paul »

Sorry to see that Dave. Drying out starts today with the sunshine hopefully
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Post by Sue »

Sorry to see how the weather hit everyone in neighbouring villages. We seem to have got off very lightly where we live in Argeles. The rain was torrential but our property survived. If anyone needs any help to get it back together then just shout.
Last edited by Sue on Wed 23 Nov 2011 18:03, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by interiors66 »

Kate wrote:Flipp!n 'eck Dave. Glad you're all OK. Just the noise of the rain is quite frightening. Dogs OK?
the dogs are fine thanks kate, all is well here and apart from the endless pile of wet towels there is little sign of it happening,we got away with it lightly.
although today i took a drive up the valley heureuse , and that was bad!
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Post by opas »

apart from the endless pile of wet towels :lol:

I thought that was par for the course in your house! :lol: :lol:

seriously, I feel for anyone that suffers from that sort of water ingress, If anyone needs a helping hand feel free to ask.
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floods in St genis

Post by tubs »

Goodness Dave, looks frightening, the amount of water rushing through your garden. We live in St Genis (part-time!) and I'm thankful to say that we escaped unscathed, so the neighbours tell us. Hope you'll be dried out soon. Not there at the moment to give you a hand unfortunately.
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Post by Sav »

Existentialbricks wrote: I knew these enormous trenches and gorges must be here for a reason! Today at Amélie I could understand how so much damage could have been caused in the famous flooding in the 1940's - I can't remember the local name for it, someone told me once, and it's obviously lodged deeply in the local historical psyche.
It was the 1940 Aiguat

Quote: Il a été mesuré 840 mm de pluie le 17 octobre à l'usine électrique de la Llau. Cette valeur a été officialisée comme étant le record de pluie en 24 heures pour l'Europe. Or le pluviomètre a débordé à 4 reprises entre 12 h 00 et 19 h 30 ce jour-là, la valeur réelle semble donc encore bien supérieure à ce chiffre...

La valeur de 1000 mm pour la journée du 17 mesurée à Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans est certainement beaucoup plus proche des quantités de pluie réellement tombées ce jour là.
http://pluiesextremes.meteo.fr/1940-10- ... illon.html

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Sorede and VH floods

Post by TOM AND BARB »

Hi,

Can someone please update me on the Vallee Heureuse and Sorede situation with regards to repairs to infrastructure.
Have the drains,roads,bridges,electrics, telephone/broadband etc all been repaired or are delays and temporary patch jobs in operation ?

Thanks

T&B
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Post by blackduff »

T&B
The mayor said that this will take quite some time to correct things in the Village. The first step will be trying to get the French authorities to say that this is a "Catastrophe Natural" (bad spelling???). Then the insurance complaints can be accepted. For personal insurance claims, this has to wait for the French authorities to claim the C N. If this is an Act of God, your insurance probably will not pay anything.

Other than barriers being installed, nothing seems to being fixed. Of course I'm on the other side of this river and a bit further down.

Probably ask some of your neighbors and see what has happened chez vous.

You can find a lot of youtube videos showing Sorede and especially in the Happy Valley area.

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sorede flood

Post by TOM AND BARB »

Hi blackduff,

thanks for the update.Fortunately I have no insurance claim to make.
I was just concerned about the roads, bridges,power,drains,water connections etc and if work had started to repair things or if they are likely to be started in the middle of the Summer holiday period-----if at all !!

Vallee Heureuse does seem to be considered a bit of an inconvenient addition to the main village by the powers that be and this is evident in the poor state of the pre-storm infrastructure within the valley.

My main concern is that the repairs take forever or never get done properly as suggested by the existing delays.

The youtube videos are excellent for showing the destruction but I am unable to find any showing reconstruction.

If anything changes I would be grateful for updates.

I hope you are getting your own property back to normal.

Many thanks

T&B
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Sorede floods

Post by TOM AND BARB »

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

NADOLIG LLAWEN A BLWYDDYN NEWYDD DDA

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Vallée Heureuse

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I have just returned from my house in LVH and it is clear that nothing will be done until the catastrophe naturelle status is decreed. The mayor now lives in Argeles, and has never replied to any of the 20 letters on the subject of LVH infrastructure sent to him over the years by my (French) neighbour whose wife was head of the LVH residents comittee, now moribund. The river-bed stones have been scoured white by the passage of many tons of gravel-laden water and the handrails have been snapped off cleanly by the flow of tree-bearing water over the Pont Del Migt and the Pont de la Farge. Trees on the banks of the river have had all the earth sapped from under them and remain vertical only by an effort of will. To give Portieux his due, if the necessary work to the LVH infrastructure had been carried out, it would simply have been destroyed by the ferocity of the onslaught the valley has had to endure. What foresight the man must have. Water, both drinking water and sewage waste, has been restored. Electricity is present. The river is ugly , and the little beach between my land and the Postlethwaite's house is now a gravel-bank and the swimming hole has been almost completely filled with stones. A new island, composed of water-borne gravel has been formed where the dam pond was. The water is starting to stink as it is stagnant in some places where its usual exits have been blocked. Of the 160 lots of land in the LVH, 80 are occupied by houses. Only two of these houses are owned by Catalans. The rest are owned by foreigners, who do not usually vote in French elections and by absentee French people. Which is why the village will get repair work done and the LVH will get the usual heap of gravel thrown in the potholes from the back of a municipal lorry. It is futile, I suppose, but I have sent off an email to the mairie making clear that I am entitled to vote and as a voter expect action. All other Soredians should do the same.
an' the wun' cried Mary.
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Sorede update

Post by jethro »

3Catastrophe naturelle" has now been declared. It will be interesting to see what this means in practical terms.
an' the wun' cried Mary.
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LVH floods

Post by TOM AND BARB »

Hello Jethro,

Thanks very much for the updates,

As we one of the many 'maison secondaire' owners in LVH we to have no influence even though we pay full Taxe Habitation and Fonciere.
We hope that now that the French government has agreed to provide some funding that the repairs are actually carried out where needed and the money is not diverted elsewhere.

Please do keep us update of any further developments.

Many thanks
T&B
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Post by blackduff »

I tried to send a PM to Jethro as well as a post direct but no response yet.

But, I have some good information about the VH. I spoke to a bus driver in this area and he lives in the VH. I asked him if it's still needed to drive with a 4X4. Jokingly he said it's no longer needing of ropes and climbing equipment.

Seriously he said that the roads have been filled, as well as graded. It's not paved yet but it's certainly driveable. He seemed saying it's in good shape now. Of course the paving might take some time but I think that VH is getting a priority within Sorede. My road has parade barriers and red and white tape. I think Mas Tarte is low on the "to do" list.

I'll try and visit there soon and report more.

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VH -- sorede floods

Post by TOM AND BARB »

Hi Blackduff

Thanks very much for the updates.Its much appreciated.Am visiting during UK Easter hols so will get to find out then ---but in the meantime if there any further developments please do post them.

Thanks again

T&B
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floods in Sorede

Post by jethro »

The Mairie website invites tenders for the repair of two bridges starting in week 20 and the total replacement of the road in Rue des Castanyers starting in week 24. The roads are practicable, but the infrastructure in Sorede took a terrible beating and much work remains to be done. It takes a major cataclysm to get anything done in the Vallée Heureuse. I just hope they don't have to dig it all up again to replace the ancient cast-iron water mains which bursts spectacularly in many places . Last summer, we had six bursts in four weeks in a two-kilometre stretch of road.
an' the wun' cried Mary.
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floods in Sorede

Post by jethro »

Well, the work on temporary repairs to the bridges has started, and the work on the Rue des Castanyers will occupy the months of July and August. What surprises me is that the cost of repairing the bridges - €60000- and of repairing the road -€140000 -is so small compared to the original estimate that I fear we are going to be fobbed off with shoddy, impermanent work and it is nowhere clear if they are going to replace the ancient rusty water-mains which so splendidly imitates the Fountains of Trevi at regular intervals during the summer. At the moment, the Rue des Castanyers is a dusty piste, worthy of the Paris-Dakar route and is very difficult to drive on, particularly as all traffic, including the huge roadworks machines now have to use it. Far from being carossable, it nearly shook my little hired Chevrolet to bits last week.
an' the wun' cried Mary.
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