PARIS: Floodwaters peaked in Paris on Monday and have been threatening cities downstream as the rain-engorged Seine River winds via Normandy towards the English Channel.
Rivers swollen through France's heaviest rains in 50 years have engulfed romantic quays in Paris, swallowed up gardens and roads, halted riverboat cruises — and raised concerns about local weather alternate.
The Meteo France weather carrier said January has seen nearly double customary rainfall nationwide, and the rains previously two months are the very best measured for the length in 50 years.
"I'm amazed. I've come to Paris since 1965, most years, and I've never seen the Seine as high," said Terry Friberg, visiting from Boston. "I love Paris with all my heart but I'm very worried about the level of the river."
Flood monitoring company Vigicrues said the water ranges in Paris hit a maximum height of five.84 meters (19 toes, 2 inches) at the Austerlitz scale early Monday.
That's underneath initial fears last week, and neatly underneath file ranges of 8.62 meters in 1910, but still several meters above customary ranges of about 1.5 meters at the Austerlitz scale.
And the waters are expected to stay strangely prime for days or weeks.
That's dangerous news for vacationers hoping to cruise past Paris sites at the famed "bateaux mouches" riverboats, or talk over with the bottom flooring of the Louvre Museum, closed since last week as a precaution. Riverside train stations along the road that serves Versailles are also closed, and will remain that method for several extra days.
Water laps the bottom of historic bridges, and treetops and lampposts poke out of the brown, swirling Seine.
South African vacationer Michael Jelatis, visiting Notre Dame Cathedral on an island in central Paris, was once among many people linking the floods to international warming, blamed for increasing instances of extreme weather.
"Around the world we're all aware that things like this, unusual weather, are happening. I mean back home we are in a serious drought at the moment as well," he informed The Associated Press.
Overall, Paris is best prepared than when it was once last hit through heavy flooding in 2016, and Parisians have in large part taken disruptions in stride this time.
Other cities at the surging Seine have seen it much worse.
The floods have caused damage in 242 cities along the river and tributaries already and extra warnings are in place as the prime waters transfer downstream.
In Lagny-sur-Marne south of Paris, Serge Pinon now has to stroll on a makeshift footbridge to reach his home and its flooded setting.
His basement is submerged in water, as are the plants he was once seeking to develop in a yard greenhouse tent. He lost a freezer, a fridge, a washing machine and dryer to flood waters.
"We're up to the maximum, maximum and now we're just waiting for it to go down," he said. "This year the flood has risen more rapidly than usual. Here it usually rises in a regular fashion and we have the time to see it coming we can save things. But this time it rose too quickly."
Elsewhere in the town, street indicators stick out of the water and a lonely boat floats in the Marne River, once out there from the riverbank but now unreachable on foot.
Mayor Jean-Paul Michel said that residents are used to seasonal floods, but this one is exceptionally long-lasting, now in its 3rd week. "So it goes on and on, and we think it's going to carry on for (another) long week before the flood starts subsiding," he said.
Rivers swollen through France's heaviest rains in 50 years have engulfed romantic quays in Paris, swallowed up gardens and roads, halted riverboat cruises — and raised concerns about local weather alternate.
The Meteo France weather carrier said January has seen nearly double customary rainfall nationwide, and the rains previously two months are the very best measured for the length in 50 years.
"I'm amazed. I've come to Paris since 1965, most years, and I've never seen the Seine as high," said Terry Friberg, visiting from Boston. "I love Paris with all my heart but I'm very worried about the level of the river."
Flood monitoring company Vigicrues said the water ranges in Paris hit a maximum height of five.84 meters (19 toes, 2 inches) at the Austerlitz scale early Monday.
That's underneath initial fears last week, and neatly underneath file ranges of 8.62 meters in 1910, but still several meters above customary ranges of about 1.5 meters at the Austerlitz scale.
And the waters are expected to stay strangely prime for days or weeks.
That's dangerous news for vacationers hoping to cruise past Paris sites at the famed "bateaux mouches" riverboats, or talk over with the bottom flooring of the Louvre Museum, closed since last week as a precaution. Riverside train stations along the road that serves Versailles are also closed, and will remain that method for several extra days.
Water laps the bottom of historic bridges, and treetops and lampposts poke out of the brown, swirling Seine.
South African vacationer Michael Jelatis, visiting Notre Dame Cathedral on an island in central Paris, was once among many people linking the floods to international warming, blamed for increasing instances of extreme weather.
"Around the world we're all aware that things like this, unusual weather, are happening. I mean back home we are in a serious drought at the moment as well," he informed The Associated Press.
Overall, Paris is best prepared than when it was once last hit through heavy flooding in 2016, and Parisians have in large part taken disruptions in stride this time.
Other cities at the surging Seine have seen it much worse.
The floods have caused damage in 242 cities along the river and tributaries already and extra warnings are in place as the prime waters transfer downstream.
In Lagny-sur-Marne south of Paris, Serge Pinon now has to stroll on a makeshift footbridge to reach his home and its flooded setting.
His basement is submerged in water, as are the plants he was once seeking to develop in a yard greenhouse tent. He lost a freezer, a fridge, a washing machine and dryer to flood waters.
"We're up to the maximum, maximum and now we're just waiting for it to go down," he said. "This year the flood has risen more rapidly than usual. Here it usually rises in a regular fashion and we have the time to see it coming we can save things. But this time it rose too quickly."
Elsewhere in the town, street indicators stick out of the water and a lonely boat floats in the Marne River, once out there from the riverbank but now unreachable on foot.
Mayor Jean-Paul Michel said that residents are used to seasonal floods, but this one is exceptionally long-lasting, now in its 3rd week. "So it goes on and on, and we think it's going to carry on for (another) long week before the flood starts subsiding," he said.
Floods peak in Paris as France sees worst rains in 50 years
![Floods peak in Paris as France sees worst rains in 50 years]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
January 30, 2018
Rating:
