Storm surge aftermath in Aytré, Charente-Maritime (Source: Associated Press)
The communities of the Côte de Lumière, a string of seaside resorts on France’s Atlantic coast, sit an ocean away from the bayous of coastal Louisiana. Better accustomed to hosting Parisians and (the original) Orleanais on their weekend getaways, the towns received a rude visit from an unexpected guest late last month.
Unfortunately, this one left a lot more than broken furniture and unpaid tabs when it cleared out.
Arriving on February 28, Xynthia, a late winter windstorm, walloped southwestern France with rain and fierce gusts of more than 100 miles per hour. Two days of violent weather left at least 47 dead in France and caused an estimated $4 billion in damages across western Europe.
This disaster highlighted both the global need for enhanced community resilience measures and the importance of wetland defenses in areas like France’s Atlantic coastline. The folks at StormSmart Coasts noted that only 7% of French coastal communities in the path of winter windstorms have risk prevention plans that delineate permitted building zones. In addition, many seaside homes in the Côte de Lumière are built with unreinforced masonry, leaving them vulnerable to severe damage during storms of Xynthia’s strength. Unchecked real estate development in coastal areas (often on drained wetlands) has exacerbated the problem by placing millions of people in the line of fire of storms like Xynthia. Indeed, Swiss Re has estimated that severe windstorms accounted for 75-80% of all European insured losses between 1970 and 2007, making them by far the most damaging natural disasters in Europe.
A section of sea wall destroyed by Xynthia, Île de Ré, Charente-Maritime (Source: Associated Press)
While France has over 6,200 miles of sea walls, these manmade defenses have proven woefully inadequate due to chronic underinvestment, deferred maintenance (with some sea walls dating back to the 18th century), and the continued disappearance of coastal marshlands. One solution to bolster community resilience would be for towns to restore the wetlands that had served as natural defenses against storm surges in the past.
Over the past two decades, France has enhanced its legal protection of wetlands, and earlier in February, Chantal Jouanno, France’s Secretary of State for Ecology, launched a €20 million wetlands action plan to maintain French marshes. However, this is a relatively small amount to cover the 7,000 square miles of wetlands in metropolitan France.
Storm damage in La Faute-sur-Mer, Vendée after Xynthia (Source: Getty Images)
Think of what could have been saved (to say nothing of the jobs that could have been created) if the marshes of France’s coasts had been restored as natural barriers against wave action. Scientists have estimated that, on average, three linear miles of wetlands reduces hurricane-strength storm surges by one foot. The combination of natural buffers with concrete and stone sea walls could have provided multiple lines of defense for communities along France’s windswept Atlantic Coast.
The crisis facing this region is indicative of the global market for companies that can advise communities seeking resiliency measures against weather disasters. This includes fields like home elevation, storm window design, and wetland restoration. This is part of the reason why Louisiana must actively incubate the sorts of firms that can develop solutions in these areas, not just for Cajun communities down on the bayou, but for their French cousins along the Bay of Biscay.