{"id":14147,"date":"2026-02-28T11:58:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T10:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/?p=14147"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:13:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:13:36","slug":"maine-river-flood-the-motherhouse-hit-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/maine-river-flood-the-motherhouse-hit-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Crue de la Maine, la Maison-M\u00e8re de nouveau touch\u00e9e"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Motherhouse of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd found itself on the front line of the Maine River flood that occurred beginning on February 14. For several days, the Angers maintenance team had to deal with a gradual, unpredictable, and exhausting rise in water levels, which reached 6.40 meters on Sunday, February 22. Ga\u00ebtan Collineau, head of the service, and Christophe Tarot look back on this crisis management.<\/em><\/p>\n

It all began on Saturday, February 14. As early as Sunday, the water had reached the linden tree path. On Monday, the 16th, part of the parking lot was flooded, and the trash containers were floating: the first alert. Very quickly, the team understood that they had to anticipate the worst. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know how high it could rise<\/em>,\u201d explains Ga\u00ebtan.<\/p>\n

Workshops, storage areas, garages, the museum, the fair-trade shop, the stationery and souvenir shop, the laundry room, and the cellars: all the spaces located in the flood zone were secured as much as possible. The reference tool became the Vigicrues website. But the curve remained stubbornly rising. \u201cOn voyait que \u00e7a montait, mais on ne voyait pas la baisse. C\u2019est \u00e7a qui nous a alert\u00e9s<\/em>. \u00bb<\/p>\n

Forts de l\u2019exp\u00e9rience de Jo\u00ebl Maussion et Thierry Avrillon, d\u00e9j\u00e0 pr\u00e9sent lors de la crue de 1995, l\u2019\u00e9quipe d\u00e9cide d\u2019agir comme si le niveau maximal allait \u00eatre atteint. Palettes de parpaings, pompe vide- cave, sacs de sable, d\u00e9montage et sur\u00e9l\u00e9vation du mat\u00e9riel : tout est mis en \u0153uvre.<\/p>\n

Des \u201cbatardeaux\u201d artisanaux<\/h4>\n

Des \u201cbatardeaux\u201d artisanaux sont install\u00e9s devant certaines portes. Ils fonctionnent\u2026 en partie.\nMais l\u2019eau remonte par capillarit\u00e9 \u00e0 travers les murs en ardoise des anciennes b\u00e2tisses comme dans le mus\u00e9e et la maison Lazare. \u00abOn a tout fait, mais c\u2019\u00e9tait d\u00e9solant de voir que \u00e7a passait quand m\u00eame<\/em>\u00bb, confie Christophe.<\/p>\n

Dans la nuit du jeudi au vendredi, l\u2019eau gagne plus de 10 centim\u00e8tres.\n Un moment particuli\u00e8rement marquant. \u00abLe soir, on pensait avoir g\u00e9r\u00e9. Le lendemain, l\u2019eau d\u00e9passait les portes. On se demandait quand \u00e7a allait s\u2019arr\u00eater.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n

Au total, une trentaine de portes coupe-feu, extr\u00eamement lourdes et co\u00fbteuses, sont d\u00e9mont\u00e9es pour \u00e9viter qu\u2019elles ne soient irr\u00e9m\u00e9diablement endommag\u00e9es.<\/p>\n

Reloger dans l\u2019urgence<\/h4>\n

The situation became critical for Lazare House and the Museum, which were affected by 15 to 20 centimeters of water. In coordination with the province leader Sister Marie-Luc Bailly, the province treasuerer Sister Helen Anne, and the director of the EHPAD nursing home, a relocation solution was organized at the Marie-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de Soubiran residence. Nine adults and two children, including a baby, were temporarily welcomed there. \u201cOn sentait dans leurs regards un vrai soulagement d\u2019\u00eatre relog\u00e9s<\/em>. \u00bb<\/p>\n

Des cons\u00e9quences difficiles \u00e0 g\u00e9rer<\/h4>\n

Cutting off electricity in certain buildings for safety reasons creates additional difficulties: no heating, no internet, no telephone service. A temporary power supply has to be installed to restore power to the boiler room.\nThe material damage is significant: floors, walls, electrical installations, and long-lasting dampness \u00bbIt will take at least six months to assess all the consequences. Some will only become apparent over time<\/em>. \u00bb<\/p>\n

Between insurance delays, the drying of the buildings, and the availability of contractors, full restoration will take time.<\/p>\n

Une cellule de crise pour l\u2019avenir<\/h4>\n

With hindsight, Ga\u00ebtan Collineau emphasizes the importance of a formalized organization: \u00abFrom a flooding problem come dozens of others. We should have set up a crisis unit so we wouldn\u2019t have to bear all the decisions alone.<\/em>\u00bb Cette crue interroge aussi la r\u00e9currence des ph\u00e9nom\u00e8nes climatiques extr\u00eames. Ce qui relevait autrefois de l\u2019exception pourrait devenir plus fr\u00e9quent.\nUn esprit d\u2019\u00e9quipe remarquable<\/p>\n

Un esprit d\u2019\u00e9quipe remarquable<\/h4>\n

Malgr\u00e9 la fatigue, les journ\u00e9es \u00e0 rallonge et la pression constante, un point demeure positif : la solidarit\u00e9.\n\u00abPersonne ne s\u2019est plaint. On \u00e9tait sous la pluie \u00e0 poser des sacs de sable, et tout le monde \u00e9tait l\u00e0<\/em>. \u00bb\nLes membres de l\u2019\u00e9quipe ont m\u00eame propos\u00e9 de rester joignables le week- end en cas d\u2019urgence.<\/p>\n

Les s\u0153urs ont manifest\u00e9 leur soutien, localement et \u00e0 l\u2019international. Des messages sont arriv\u00e9s du monde entier, t\u00e9moignant de l\u2019attachement aux lieux et \u00e0 la communaut\u00e9.\n\u00abOn est peu de choses face \u00e0 la nature<\/em>\u00bb. La crue aura \u00e9t\u00e9 un rappel brutal de la vuln\u00e9rabilit\u00e9 des b\u00e2timents face aux \u00e9l\u00e9ments. Mais elle aura aussi r\u00e9v\u00e9l\u00e9 la solidit\u00e9 d\u2019une \u00e9quipe, capable d\u2019agir avec calme, professionnalisme et engagement.<\/p>\n

Aujourd\u2019hui, le temps est au nettoyage, au s\u00e9chage et \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9valuation. Demain sera celui de la reconstruction \u2014 et de la pr\u00e9paration aux crises futures.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Motherhouse of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd found itself on the front line of the Maine River flood that occurred beginning on February 14. For several days, the Angers maintenance team had to deal with a gradual, unpredictable, and exhausting rise in water levels, which reached 6.40 meters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-france"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-23-at-10.00.08-1_169.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14147"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14375,"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14147\/revisions\/14375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olcgs.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}