Abstract
France, unlike the other European countries included in this study, is exposed to both river and flash floods. Though the damage caused by both types of floods is considerable, flash floods capture more attention because of their suddenness, drama, and regularity in the south of France. Two particularly eventful flash floods occurred in Nîmes (department of Gard) in 1988 (9 deaths) and in Vaison-la-Romaine (department of Vaucluse) in September 1992 (41 deaths).
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Notes
This study was carried out with the collaboration of the Direction de la Sécurité Civile (Ministry of the Interior), the prefectures and municipalities concerned, as well as the various operational services and organisations involved. It is the result of enquiries based on the analysis of various documents (non-official, informal notes and reports, press reports, audiovisual documents, internal memos, laws, decrees and various orders, official reports, etc.) at both the national and local levels, and on interviews in the two departments concerned.
The regional prefect has no hierarchical power over the other prefects but plays a coordinating role.
The deconcentrated state services are the local agencies of national ministries.
Inter-ministerial order of 27 February 1984 on the re-organisation of flood warning and the communication of flood warnings, and inter-ministerial order of 27 February 1984 on the re-organisation of the flood-warning services. Circulaire of 2 September 1993 relating to communication of weather alerts.
We have translated établissement public in ‘public body’ which refers to a specific public status that can be used to manage some public utilities (it is different from the status of an administration).
The SACs must communicate their data to the meteorological services so that these can improve the accuracy of their forecasts. Conversely, the meteorological services assist in the flood announcement by sending them information. When one or more thresholds are exceeded, the meteorological services must provide the head of the SAC and the prefect with weather bulletins at fixed intervals.
Concepts placed in quotations in this section refer to administratively designed states of mobilization.
Article L. 131–2, paragraph 6 of the Code des Communes.
Note that the SDIS are under the authority of the prefect from an operational point of view, but from a budgetary point of view in particular, they are answerable to the Conseil Général, an assembly elected at departmental level whose powers have increased considerably following the decentralisations started in 1982.
Ministère de l’Intérieur- Inspection Générale de l’Administration, Le préfet et la crise, Charte du comportement, juillet 1994.
Note that there can be several warning, reception and processing centres in some departments shared between the various fire services. Also note the existence of another rescue phone number (nr. 15), run by the Services d’Aide Médicale Urgente (SAMU, emergency medical aid service) which belong to hospital centres.
Article 22 of the decree of 6 May 1988.
It is worth noting that not all the zones are equally vital, neither do they all have truly operational and experienced structures. Owing to the large number of forest fires, the southern departments were the first to have a CIRCOSC in 1979 eight years prior to the law. This unequal structuring may play an important role, especially where cooperation between operational participants is concerned, according to the geographical localization of the disasters. The centers have around 90 people, firemen or soldiers, at their disposal.
Vincent Dye, La sécurité civile en France, Paris: PUF 1995.
It is difficult to obtain precise information which can be cross-referenced concerning the management of the rescue operations in the Ardennes in 1993. Apparently, few documents have been produced by the various services concerned. The people interviewed, who took part in both flood operations, have forgotten the 1993 flood, confuse it with the flood of 1995 or make no distinction between observations that can apply to both cases, focusing automatically on the latter event.
All of the ministers concerned by the bad weather and floods that continued for over a week convened on 30 January to evaluate the situation, the implemented means and the necessary aids.
As in 1993, these actors, and especially the DDE, complained about the lack of cooperation demonstrated by individuals who ignored signs, moved them and resented the security forces for forbidding access to bridges. These reactions forced the actors concerned to mobilize more personnel than necessary, especially to handle the curiosity seekers who wanted to observe the flood often found themselves in danger spots. Gendarmes and police officers conducted rounds and closed some zones to prevent pillaging and break-ins.
Yvonne Lambert-Faivre, ‘L’indemnisation des victimes de catastrophes naturelles, ‘Communication au Colloque ‘La crise et le droit de la sécurité civile,’ Avignon, 14–15 mai 1993.
CCR: a limited company, 100% state-owned since 1 January 1993. An agreement with the state allows it to insure natural disasters, with an unlimited guarantee. The insurers can choose other insurance companies as well.
Circulaire nr. 93–00104C relating to risk and crisis management: organization of inter-ministerial defence and civil protection services, Ministry of the Interior and Public Safety, 26 March 1993.
Vittoria de Bagnolo, ‘Inondations: prévenir plutôt que guérir’, L’Assurance Française, nr. 705, janvier 1995.
Ibidem.
A special set of measures exists for farms, established in the law of 10 July 1964, which covers agricultural disaster — including floods.
It is difficult to obtain accurate and appropriate numerical data. No specific organization is in charge of collecting data and practically no organization or service compares its data with that of other institutions. The presentations made by the various institutions bear no common format in terms of categories of damage, categories of subsidy, etc. Even for the same type of institution in different locations, the number of documents available can vary tremendously. Also, the data tends to be aggregated with other data which either corresponds to a set of floods over a given period or to different floods affecting the same zone. This is just as true immediately after the event as it is when reports are written later. In addition, immediately after the event announcements are made concerning the allocation of a certain number of subsidies, but later it often becomes difficult to find clear signs of the translation of these announcements into concrete action. Some of the announcements can be equated with a public display, while others find themselves integrated in less specific financial procedures than those covering only flood damage (for example, integration of the repair costs caused by flooding within the overall annual budget for the maintenance of local collective infrastructure). The question of reproducing an exhaustive assessment is raised as well as that of an homogeneous comparison of several floods, and hence the differences in content for the three cases.
Cf. Le Tour de Ville. Revue d’information de l’Association Valréas Communication, nr. 8, 4ème trimestre 1994 et nr. 10, 4ème trimestre 1994. Bollène. L’information municipale en direct, ‘Spécial inondations. 1er octobre 94: un an après’, édité par la ville de Bollène,
supplément au nr. 7. Bollène. L’information municipale en direct, ‘Spécial: 1993…94–95, le rebond’, septembre-octobre 1995
Professional consular organization representing industrialists and shopkeepers at the departmental or local level and under ministerial supervision.
Rapport sur l’évaluation des dégâts causés en France par les inondations de l’hiver 1993–1994, présenté par Mrs Gilles Sanson et Tristan Florenne, Ministère de l’Intérieur et de l’Aménagement du Territoire, juillet 1994.
For the department, this includes especially the Red Cross, the Secours Populaire, the Secours Catholique and the Restos du coeur.
Cf. Préfecture des Ardennes, Direction des Actions Interministérielles, Les inondations, 22 février 1995; Préfecture des Ardennes, Direction des Actions Interministérielles, Dispositif d’aide aux particuliers, entreprises et collectivités locales victimes des inondations de janvier 1995; Préfecture des Ardennes, Direction des Actions Interministérielles, Conséquences économiques des inondations, septembre 1995.
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Gilbert, C., Gouy, C. (1998). Flood Management in France. In: Rosenthal, U., ’t Hart, P. (eds) Flood Response and Crisis Management in Western Europe. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71997-4_2
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