Home » Front Page
Reading News 4U: France sees worst rains in 50 years, floods peak in Paris
Monday, January 29, 2018
VietPress USA (Jan. 29, 2018): The non-stop and heavy rain during last week until today caused the floodwaters from Seine river to sink may part of the heart of Paris, France. This is the worst flood reached the peak in Paris in 50 years.
Read this news from Chicago Tribune at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-paris-france-flooding-20180129-story.html
VietPress USA News
www.vietpressusa.us
oOo
France sees worst rains in 50 years, floods peak in Paris
Nicholas Garriga and Jeffrey SchaefferAssociated Press
Floodwaters reached a peak in Paris on Monday and were
threatening towns downstream along the rain-engorged Seine River as it winds
through Normandy toward the English Channel.
Rivers swollen by 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 climate change.
The national weather service Meteo France said Monday that
January has seen nearly double normal rainfall nationwide, and that the rains
in the past two months are the highest measured for the period 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 agency Vigicrues said the water levels in
Paris hit a maximum height of 5.84 meters (19 feet, 2 inches) on the Austerlitz
scale early Monday.
That's below initial fears last week, and well below record
levels of 8.62 meters in 1910, but still several meters above normal levels of
about 1.5 meters on the Austerlitz scale.
And the waters are expected to stay unusually high for days
or weeks.
That's bad news for tourists hoping to cruise past Paris
sites on the famed "bateaux mouches" riverboats, or visit the bottom
floor of the Louvre Museum, closed since last week as a precaution. Riverside
train stations along the line that serves Versailles are also closed, and will
remain that way for several more days.
France floods
The banks of river Seine are flooded in Paris, France,
Monday, Jan. 29, 2018. Floodwaters have reached a peak in Paris and are now
threatening towns downstream along the rain-engorged Seine River. (Michel Euler
/ AP)
Water laps the underside of historic bridges, and treetops
and lampposts poke out of the brown, swirling Seine.
South African tourist Michael Jelatis, visiting Notre Dame
Cathedral on an island in central Paris, was among many people linking the
floods to global 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 told The Associated Press.
Overall, Paris is better prepared than when it was last hit
by heavy flooding in 2016, and Parisians have largely taken disruptions in
stride this time.
Other towns on the surging Seine have seen it much worse.
The floods have caused damage in 242 towns along the river
and tributaries already and more warnings are in place as the high waters move
downstream.
In Lagny-sur-Marne south of Paris, Serge Pinon now has to
walk on a makeshift footbridge to reach his home and its flooded surroundings.
His basement is submerged in water, as are the plants he was
trying to grow in a backyard greenhouse tent. He lost a freezer, a
refrigerator, 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 signs stick out of the water
and a lonely boat floats in the Marne River, once accessible 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 third
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.
Angela Charlton contributed.
oOo
www.Vietpressusa.us