A manufacturer of vehicle steering columns was flooded when the River Doubs overflowed its banks during the night. Production was shut down in order to remove the flood water. Production at one of its customers was also brought to a standstill due to a loss of power (ARIA 51009). The operator monitored the water level each hour on the www.vigicrues.gouv.fr website. At the same time, it measured the water level in a surface water gully inside the building every two hours. It activated the site’s flooding procedure when the level rose to 10 cm below the level in the facility. This monitoring enabled the operator to prepare and carry out the following safety actions:

• all electrical equipment was moved to at least 40 cm above floor level;
• all stored chemicals were checked during the flood period;
• most finished products were moved to a distribution centre;
• components used in manufacturing were moved to higher areas.

The flood forced the manufacturer to shut down operations for 29 hours, prevented access to the site for 24 hours, and cost an estimated €110k plus €75k in labour.

Since the flood, the operator plans to update its flooding procedure and calculate the cost of buying flood barriers for the openings of its buildings and the cost of getting a freephone number.