Flood Fighting in Mareuil-Caubert, France in May 2001
Geodesign did a demo of the Pallet Barrier in northern France between the 8th and 10th of May, 2001. The demo was requested by the French military and the rescue services in the area. The French army provided men and sandbags for the works and were supervising the operation that started in the morning on Tuesday the 8th of May.
	The Somme had been flooded since the end of March due to high ground water table and unusually heavy rain during autumn and spring. Around 3400 homes and 500 farms were already flooded and authorities were looking for ways of saving buildings and property.
The first building to be saved from the water was the school in the village Mareuil-Caubert, east of Abbeville. The buildings and the schoolyard were already in water. At the deepest places, around the west building, the water was about 50 cm deep. The flooded area facing the lake and the river behind the school consisted of gravel, earth and some minor vegetation.
	Because the area was already flooded the supports had to be nailed to the pallets on high ground and then towed, one by one, out in the water. They float if turned upside down. After a few hours the supports and pallets were in place in a 150 metre long barrier on the 3 flooded sides of the school. The membrane was put on place and tightly sealed to the ground along the outer edge with a single row of sandbags.
The fire brigade arrived with several pumps in different sizes and the water level behind the barrier started to decrease. Early in the morning on the 9th of May the water was almost gone and the work finding and stopping the leakages through pipes and drains underground was about to begin. Unfortunately there was trouble with the pumps between morning and lunch so the water level started increasing again. It wasn't until afternoon when the problems with the pumps were solved that the water level was low again. Now sandbags and sheets of plastic material were used to stop leakages from underground pipes around the buildings. After this was done, the water level decreased quicker.
	In the morning on the 10th of May the water level behind the barrier was at a minimum. The big pumps were switched of and taken away. Only one small pump was needed to keep the water out. The demo was successful and the Pallet Barrier had once again proved to be efficient even when water has already flooded an area.