He was in the prefecture at the operational center. It tells of Irma's passage.
Commander Guillaume of the Military Security Civilizations arrived on Monday afternoon by a commercial flight at Juliana airport. He is part of the sixty soldiers and civilian firefighters sent before Irma's passage through Paris. In view of the hurricane that promises to be devastating, the Directorate General of Civil Security and Crisis Management has indeed advised political decision-makers to send men to Saint-Martin.
Commander Guillaume's mission is to support local government services. It is a question of consolidating the COT, the territorial operational committee (COD, D for departmental in mainland) set up a few days earlier. Logistics must be anticipated and organized on site.
When Commander Guillaume arrived, Irma was 850 km west of the Lesser Antilles. It is in category 3 with winds at 195 km / h and should strengthen further in the coming days. Barely twelve hours later, she was placed in category 5 by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami. In the system, the winds are already blowing at more than 280 km / h. "I consult the evolution of the weather forecast which provides a strengthening," he says. Quickly decisions are made. “We need to arm logistics platforms, build teams, poles. We will also need network, water, EDF, telephone experts because we know that the antennas at Pic Paradis will not hold up. We know there is going to be a lot of damage, that there will be deaths, ”he continues. The information is brought back to Paris. "I make two reports, one in the morning, a second in the afternoon," said the commander.
Upstream of certain climatic events (cyclone overseas or floods in mainland France), Civil Security is dispatched to the municipalities to support elected officials and the prefectural body. Between June and October, it is for example in the South of France because of the high risk of fire. Commander Guillaume's mission in Saint-Martin is therefore not extraordinary. However, it will quickly become so on the night of September 5 to 6.
In the evening, the TOC manages the evacuations. Messages to the population ordering it to evacuate the flood zones due to heavy rains identified on maps (Orleans district, Orient bay, Grand Case, Marigot, Lowlands, etc.) are multiplying on social networks and the radios. “We have estimated that 11 people will be evacuated. We cannot go door to door but people leave on their own. In the evening, we make two buses available, which allows some 000 people to be evacuated, ”reports the commander.
In turn, the operational center installed in the large meeting room upstairs of the prefecture and which consists of twenty-four people, will find itself in a situation of insecurity. The captain senses that the large bay windows will not hold. Around 23 p.m. to midnight, he orders the evacuation on the ground floor. Computers, cables and other materials went down into the reception hall when entering the prefecture. The network is reconstituted. But there too the room will prove to be uncertain. The TOC will therefore once again migrate to another more protected room. At that time, "we are only thinking of saving our lives. We move forward with our heads down [he mimes the attitude with his arm over his head] to protect us. Once inside the room, make sure everyone is there. We haven't known each other for a long time ... We then look to see if his or her colleague is there ... And he or she is there? Yes, he is over there ... We are holding the door ... We hear the wind, the windows exploding, as everyone has experienced. We tell ourselves that the pieces will explode one after the other, ”he says with, however, a certain emotional reserve.
It is 6 a.m., Irma's eye approaches Saint Martin. Provisional lull period. "We take this opportunity to go out, see the first damage and recover objects to protect us in the room because we know it will go the other way," he continues. No time yet but especially not yet the means to reach Paris. "We sent the last SMS around 30 am," says the commander. It is only after 6 am in the morning of Wednesday, that a connection will be possible with Paris thanks to a satellite telephone, the only means of communication. The COT cannot even reach the detachment installed at the Savane gendarmerie barracks.
Saint-Martin has just been ravaged. The prefecture which shelters the operational center of coordination of the helps was destroyed. The TOC members get back into action quickly, however. "We must react and reconstitute the TOC. The territorial police take us with their pick-ups to La Savane, ”says the commander.
With the reconfigured TOC, the first missions are to estimate a human and material balance. You have to clear the roads to get to the field. "Our strategy, and I think it was good, was to pre-position three groups, one in Quartier d'Orléans, one in Concordia and another in La Savane", considers the soldier. The winds are still strong and it is not possible to use drones. “We have to go and see for ourselves. We then estimate that 95% of the buildings are affected, half of which are very damaged ”.
Significant reinforcements are needed. They will arrive in successive waves and the first will land at Grand Case Airport on Thursday morning. From the first hours after the passage of Irma, the soldiers of the civil security worked to clear the national road 7 and the access to the airport to allow its reopening as soon as possible. "We sent a car to the track to observe its condition and remove the obstacles," emphasizes Commander Guillaume.
During this time, the second detachment is in flight for Guadeloupe where it will arrive at night then in the early morning in Saint-Martin. The civil security soldiers get down to work. Then begins their mission: assistance to the affected Saint-Martinois with the distribution of water, food, tarpaulins, etc.
Like his colleagues, Commander Guillaume confirmed the "extraordinary" nature of the situation. "This is something terrible," he says. For him, the hardest part was certainly to witness the destruction, the explosion of the prefecture. Source: www.soualigapost.com
To be continued in our next edition:
Civil security :
A real logistics challenge (4/4)
6,771 total views
No comments