“I lost 60 years of work. I don’t know how I’m going to go on, I have to reinvent my life.” He’s desperate Bruno Jeantet, owner of an alpine pasture and a farm in Valnontey. In a few hours he lost all the investments made with sweat and effort for himself and his entire family.
When he understood the gravity of the situation on Saturday evening, he asked for help from the municipality and then took the whole family to go safe in the woods. “My daughter was there too with a 5 month old baby”. In the village of Cogne, however, these are hectic hours. “A friend who helped me left at 7 pm, when the bridge was still standing, to reach me. He arrived at 10, full of mud and bringing me a bit of relief”. The rescue team then arrived at 4:30 in the morning to bring the mother and child back to safety. Bruno, with the rest of the family – his wife, the other two daughters, the partner of one of them and a friend – remained.
“I had the generator working and when we got home we were able to turn on the stove.” As the sun rose, Bruno and his family were faced with the devastation caused by the landslides, one arrived 20 meters from the house and the stables. “If he had caught us, he would have swept everything away.”
Fifteen or more hectares of land wiped out by multiple landslides. The facilities of the Prasupiaz agricultural and agritourism company They suffered no damage, but everything around them was wiped out by the flood.The valley has totally changed, there remains, where there were pastures, a large riverbed. Not even a rabbit passes through here anymore. I’m finished, I’ve lost everything”.
The Forty Dairy Cowswho escaped during the night were recovered in the morning, but now the concern is about how they will be able to survive.
“I still have a battery life of 15 days between water and grassif they can give me a ride down,” he says. The mountain pasture is isolated, without running water, electricity, or diesel for the generator. “I used to get water from the tank in the Paradisia botanical garden, but the pipes and turbine were destroyed.”
The whole family works on the farm – “it’s our passion, our life” – but also 7 employees who helped Jeantet in the catering business, the only one in the area.
“In Cogne, the one who suffered the most damage was me,” he says. “The damaged activities in Valnontey can be recovered, but here, to clean and restore, it will take millions and millions of euros. The flood of 2000, in comparison, had caused a tenth of the damage.”
While the entire family is physically well, morale is understandably low. “I’ve put all my money into this business. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
