A devastated road, a broken train, dragged cars, mud everywhere and a few tears - the Belgian town of Dinant healed its wounds on Sunday after a very local but exceptionally stormy episode.
Dressed in shoes and armed with shovels and brooms, the residents of Rue de Philippeville clean the dirt that invades garages, ground floors and basements after a violent storm on Saturday night in this area of โโthe province of Namur (South).
Images reminiscent of the devastating floods that hit neighboring Lige province ten days ago and killed 37 people, according to a new assessment from the crisis center on Sunday. It had also influenced Dinant by the floods of the Meuse, but with much less force.
Parked cars raced down the incline road like a "ball" and got stuck at a level crossing. Sidewalks were ripped apart by torrents of mud, cables were exposed, sidewalks were raised, and cobblestones were washed away.
It is the runoff water, due to the lack of high absorption by the already very soaked land, that was invading the road.
One resident said: โI saw a body of water over a meter (high) that took everything on board. I was scared for my 89-year-old mother, who lives across the street. Electricity. We couldn't cross the street. โJacques Hermant sobs in his voice.
- "I've never seen him like this" -
His car, with broken windows and flat tires, was dragged like the others. "Go on vacation? I don't want to," says the retiree, still deprived of running water.
โWe are used to seeing the Meuse rise, but the water runs through the streets of the heightsโฆ it is unimaginableโ, testifies Brigitte Crouquet, a native of this tourist town known for its citadel and its cliffs.
โThere was a big hail storm. We were at a soccer game, the synthetic field was everywhere. It was raining mud in Dinant, we had never seen anything like it, โhe adds.
"Our city is so beautiful, it cannot be damaged by weather events," she angrily, her voice cracking.
On Sunday morning, a crane cleared stone tracks and stacked branches to allow technicians to assess the extent of mud-covered ballast damage in this section connecting Dinant to Namur.
โI have never seen anything like this in 20 years. The ballast stabilizes the track, the mud has a spring effect โ, explains Claudio Gualtieri, Infrabel technician, infrastructure manager of the Belgian railways.
Although localized, the damage is substantial. โWe are going to do temporary work to close the roads. We hope for help from the Walloon government. It will be very expensive, โsaid Deputy Mayor Robert Closet in an orange jumpsuit.
No deaths or injuries were reported in this stormy episode, which affected a total of ten municipalities in the Meuse Valley, including Namur. In Dinant, some residents had to leave their homes.
Once again, solidarity is in full swing: residents are helped by volunteers who come from the city, but also from further afield, like this woman who came to bring croissants and pains au chocolate.
