Mayor sued for floodwall failure

THE MAYOR of the seaside village of Aiguillon-sur-Mer is being sued by a resident for failing to heed warnings of dangers such as the floods from Tempête Xynthia which overwhelmed the commune earlier this year.

James Gaillard and his wife Moïsette say they wrote a year ago warning of what would happen if the sea defences failed and say they were told: “Dykes are expensive.”
The mairie “did not believe” them and never thought the area would face such floods.

When Xynthia hit at the end of February it demolished flood defences in the Vendée and Charente-Maritime and killed 53 people, including 26 in Aiguillon-sur-Mer and La Faute-sur-Mer.

The couple are the first to lay complaints, although others have told news agencies they are ready to sue the government over its lack of funding for protective defences.

There has also been a massive reaction against the government’s decision to declare large “zones noires” where 1,500 flood-hit houses will be demolished and where there will be no rebuilding.

Hundreds have joined street protests saying they are people “not cattle” and complaining that the plan does not have solid scientific backing.

One resident said he did not have to clear as much as a drop of water out of his house after the storm – yet he is to be moved out.

Former socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, the president of Poitou-Charentes, has called for more consideration for the people and Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau, the president of the Charente-Maritime Conseil Général, says the plans should have room for some movement for special cases.

But there has been confusion in the government as Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux and Housing Secretary Benoist Apparu said individual cases could be looked at to see what could be done.

They brought a riposte from Prime Minister François Fillon who said there was no question of change.

He said the zones had been set up based on: “objective criteria, based on concrete, precise, observations” and were not to be challenged.

However, Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, on a fact-finding tour of the region, said there was no question of systmatic demolitions saying zone noire meant zone of solidarity not “zone of immediate destruction”.