Just wondering of anyone has considered whether the recent storms in vendee and surrounding areas is going to affect their plans. The vendee has been pretty badly affected.
I have seen a few photos on the le monde website one showing quite a lot of devastation, roads in sables d'ollone have been washed away .
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I've seen some photos and it looks awful. I did wonder how it would affect people's holidays. We're off to Perpignan area at Easter so hopefully everything will be ok there. I haven't heard of any problems other than the south west and west coast of France and northern Spain.
I wouldn't think for a minute that it'll effect anyone's holiday plans. This has been declared a 'catasrphe naturelle' by the government here, which means that claiming on our insurances will be 'fast-tracked'. There's also a minimum of 3 million € being pledged by the govt. with the promise of more to come.
All of this means that the infastructure will be re-built pretty quickly. The area relies heavily on the tourist industry, and departmental as well as central government will do all that they can to get it back on its feet again.
That of course won't being back the poor people that died last weekend.
Our thoughts are with them, and how lucky we were to have escaped with minor damage ourselves.
Very savage storm and sad that it cost such loss of life and sorry to see a tree came calling at your place Stu, we were hoping to stay at your site for a few days in May, but plans are now on hold, nothing to do with the weather just some probs cropped up.
Stew
------------- Does it ever get better than spare ribs and chops straight off the BBQ
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If any campsites have been flooded I'm sure they will be open for the holiday season, If any statics & seasonal sited caravans have been washed away these will be a problem for the caravan owners not the site owners.
A few yrs ago a site I use further down the further down the coast(CHM Montalivet)was flattened by a winter gale it was still open buisness in't summer. Another site on the River Ceze(La Genese)in the south was flooded to about 3mtres but still reopened ok.
While these disasters recieve a lot of coverage & are tragic for those involved they are in fact very localised & if you are 10miles away & unaffected life goes on as normal.
If you saw the same local news as I was watching last night Tentz, you wouldn't think it was 'localised' at all.
We're many miles from where the sea wall was breached, yet we only just got our electricity back again yesterday. Just down the road, our friend's mum has half her house missing due to the wind blowing her not insubstantial cheminée into her lounge.
In St. Lambert des Levées, there's a house that's been stripped not just of its tiles, but its lathes & beams too.
Saumur saw the loss of some of its oldest residents, as the 200 year old tilleuls (trees) by the théatre were nothing but piles of sticks on Sunday mid-morning.
There are minicipal campsites affected by this catastrophe too. The statics on there are the responsibility of the Mairie. But, as I said earlier - because this has now been declaed a 'catastrophe naturelle' by François Fillon, the individuals and entreprises should find it easier and quicker to claim. There are also grants of up to €10k being offered to smaller entreprises to aid them through the interim period.
I do think that anyone holidaying in the Vendée area this year should spare a thought for what happened there, and maybe throw some change in any collection tins that you see whilst enjoying your summer holidays.
I was relating my previous post to those who might think this may affect their summer holiday Floyd, & fact is anybody in any of the affected areas who's house/car has not been flooded/damaged which will be a good percentage, will be today going to work today as normal, provided their work is open.
When people go camping/caravanning in't summer somewhere warm all they really need is a pitch & little else. I would have thought a campsite would'nt be too difficult to get up & runing again in time for the summer season & obviously owners will want to recoup losses they will have suffered because of this storm so I'm sure the clear up will have started already. You stated as much in an earlier post.
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