An 11,000 m2 warehouse storing crop protection products, stuffed toys and life jackets was flooded following a heavy downpour. The operator prepared, repackaged and palletised the stored products. The site is located on the foot of a hill and is encircled by a railway track whose raised portion upstream to the site forms a dam. After three days of intense downpour, the rain water from the hill that involuntarily flowed into the dam could not be contained. The overflowing of the dam led to the offices, storage cells and the packaging workshops being flooded by 50 cm of water for four hours. The IT network was down. Material damaged was assessed at 7 MF (the precise day of the accident was not known). After a year (October-November 1994) and under similar conditions, a second wave flooded a warehouse with 80 cm of water for ten hours. Further to these new flooding incidents, the town built an underground pipeline connecting the BERRE canal as well as a retention basin upstream to the industrial site whose excess water flowed into the canal. The operator, on his side, built 20 cm high sleeper walls between the entry points of the storage cells and ensured constant monitoring of the site.

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