Govt to reimburse owners of houses set for demolition after Xynthia

French Secretary of State for Housing Benoist Apparu said in an interview on French television on Friday that the state would fully indemnify people whose homes are set to be razed to the ground following Hurricane Xynthia.
 
The demolition plan targets some 1,510 homes within "zones noires" (black zones), risk zones that were deemed too dangerous to be inhabited again following Hurricane Xynthia, which devastated parts of France’s western coast in late February and killed 53.
 
Asked about the extent to which the victims would be indemnified, Apparu told France 2 television, “Total. Whether it be via insurance or ‘fonds Barnier’ [state funds for dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters], we will take care of the costs of the house, including the land, and naturally the pre-disaster market value of the property will be covered.”
 
But several inhabitants have warned that they had no intention of leaving their homes.
 
For those people, said Apparu, “We will try to look at the families on a case by case basis, how we can see them through their future housing plans.”
 
Apparu emphasised that the government “wants to avoid exercising eminent domain” over people’s land.
 
He added, “Our current responsibility, in light of the 53 deaths, is to say [that the area] is too dangerous for human life. We will indemnify at a 100 percent rate, but it’s too dangerous to return.”
 
Jean-Jacques Brot, the prefect of the French department of Vendée who was sworn in only 13 days before Xynthia, was heckled on Thursday when he announced the no-build zones around La Faute-sur-Mer. Residents that refused to leave even threatened suicide, accusing the state for its lack of consultation.
 
Xynthia, an eastward-moving storm, battered the western coast of France between February 26 and 28 of this year.