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Monday, January 29, 2018
The river Seine, which had already swollen during last week due to the heavy and continuous rainfall in major parts of France, has kept on rising further throughout this whole weekend, reaching 5.82 metres on Sunday mid-afternoon. On Monday morning, the Seine reached its peak level of 5.84 metres, which is more than four metres higher than normal. This peak level is just below the maximum level of 6.1 metres reached during the June 2016 floods.
According to Michel Delpuech, the Parisian police chief, nearly 1,500 people had been evacuated or called to leave their homes on Sunday in the whole region, while about as many homes were deprived from electricity. There’s chaos everywhere in the city itself. The riverside walkways of Paris have been engulfed. Rats which had been forced to leave their usual habitat have been seen in the streets of Paris. Traffic in the French capital was already heavily disrupted by the floods last week, especially when a part of the Réseau Express Régional (RER) which runs along the Seine had to be shut down. On Friday, a hospital in Yvelines where 86 patients were cured had to be evacuated. On Saturday, the world-famous Louvre museum decided to shut down for visitors a wing in its basements where Islamic arts are exhibited. Paris’s tourist boats (the “Bateaux Mouches”) were all shut down on Saturday evening. The police has given strict warnings not to go bathing or canoeing in the overflowing river, calling it “forbidden and extremely dangerous”.
The height of the Seine is expected by Vigicrues to stay at its current level the rest of today. From tomorrow on, it is expected to recede, but only very slowly.
The Parisian Region, also known as Île-de-France, remains on high flood alert. In total, 240 communes in the whole region are on alert.
Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo is especially worried about the impact the floods may have to economic activities related to the Seine.