Question 14508 — natural disasters

Summary

Ms. Emmanuelle Ménard draws the attention of the Minister of the Interior to the decree of September 18, 2018 (NOR: INTE1824834A), published in the Official Journal on October 20, 2018, which does not recognize the state of natural disaster in more than 40 municipalities in the Hérault department, including 12 municipalities in the sixth district - located to the west of the department - which had nevertheless requested it. This decision is particularly harmful, both for the municipalities and for their citizens, victims of significant damage following the drought of 2017. Many mayors of Biterrois do not hide their incomprehension since they themselves were able to see the damage caused by the ground movements. Although the law allows compensation paid to victims to be adjusted by taking into account, for example, the natural agent causing the damage - instead of just importance of the latter - the system remains unsuitable. It is even less so as it is essentially based on simulations and averages instead of taking into account objective data coming from the field. Currently, the compensation regime in the event of a natural disaster is set by articles L. 125-1 et seq. of the insurance code. The commission in charge of examining applications relies essentially on the Safran/Isba/Modcou (SIM) model established by Météo France. It has a number of flaws. For example, it ignores the criterion of shrinkage and swelling of clays over short periods, although this is a recurring phenomenon in Hérault. In addition, periods of extreme drought can be followed by particularly intense rainy episodes, known as “Cévennes”. Here again, this specificity is unknown by the current device while it causes significant ground movements, which have significant repercussions on the entire building. Based on this observation, the compensation system in the event of a natural disaster must evolve. Aware of this problem, the Ministry of the Interior is also committed to perfecting the various criteria which make it possible to characterize the state of natural disaster and to publishing the fruit of this work before the end of 2018. She asks him if the conclusions relating to this study will be quickly accessible and what measures he intends to take so that the communities and people concerned can get out of this administrative and financial impasse.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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