'There's
something terrifying about it': rise of the river Seine
As
roads and walkways are submerged by floods, life goes on in Paris and
beyond
Angelique
Chrisafis in Paris
Saturday
4 June 2016 00.31 BST
“Incredible,
that’s all I can say,” muttered Catherine, a publishing editor,
as she stared dumbfounded at the river water that had swallowed up
the busy road running along the banks of the Seine near her Paris
apartment.
Roads and
picturesque cobbled walkways in the French capital have disappeared,
submerged by a vast expanse of brown river water carrying an unusual
assortment of debris including logs, big wooden planks and a metal
sign from a boat-club in its angry, swirling current.
The rain-swollen
Seine, which has spilled over on to embankments in many places in
Paris, peaked at 6.07 metres on Friday night, its highest level in
more than 30 years.
Rising water lapped
at the tops of traffic lights and trees, road signs for speed cameras
poked out above the water, and a ticket office for the city’s river
bus, Batobus, was submerged almost up to its roof.
Large crowds,
including awestruck local children with their parents, gathered along
bridges to peer at this ominous but fascinating river-swell, which
has transformed the Paris landscape. It was eerily quiet. All water
traffic on a river normally jammed with tourist cruises, barges and
cargo was suspended because there was no room for boats to fit under
bridges. Only the dinghies of the river police were occasionally
sighted.
While the river is
not expected to rise high enough to submerge Paris’s city centre,
residents living near the Seine were urged to clear their basements.
Two gyms were opened to accommodate homeless people who would
normally find shelter on barges in the city.
The fast, churning
current hinted at the difficulties and misery the swollen river has
left in its wake.
More than 20,000
people have been evacuated in France since the weekend and around
19,000 homes were without power on Friday. At least two people have
been killed in flooding across the country, including a man on
horseback who died on Thursday after being swept away by a swollen
river in Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre. The body of an 86-year-old woman was
found in her flooded house in Souppes-sur-Loing in central France,
where some towns have been hit by the worst flooding in more than 100
years.
The French
environment minister, Ségolène Royal, said she feared more bodies
would be found as waters receded in villages in central France.
“There’s
something terrifying about it,” said Martine Lyon, 80, a
photographer who had lived in Paris for 50 years. She stood on the
Île Saint-Louis, the island in the middle of the Seine in Paris,
peering at the swirling water. “There’s a sadness, something
troubling about this,” Lyon said. “The sky is so grey and
terrible, trains aren’t running due to strikes, the river is so
high, it seems like such a cumulation of things.”
The spectre of
Paris’s great flood of 1910, when the river poured into tunnels,
sewers and drains, forcing Parisians to evacuate their homes and use
makeshift footbridges, still looms large in the city’s narrative.
In 1910, the river swelling reached more than eight metres, but,
although those heights would not be reached now, to witness the Seine
this high in Paris is something that is very rare to see in a
lifetime.
Bernard Oriol, a
retired engineer, was among crowds looking at the rushing river water
near Notre Dame cathedral. “It’s spectacular and we might never
see it like this again,” he said. “It has changed the landscape.
You never see water this close to Notre Dame.” He also felt he’d
never seen so many tourists as hundreds crammed into the square
opposite Notre Dame. “With the cruise boats all cancelled, everyone
is on tourist buses or queuing for Notre Dame to get out of the
rain,” he said.
On the quay at
Saint-Michel, a sign saying the commuter station was closed because
of flood risk was being photographed by tourists. The RER C train
line which normally carries 500,000 passengers a day along the banks
of the Seine and out towards Versailles has been closed. Similarly,
the Saint-Michel Métro station had shut after water began to seep in
at various places.
The Louvre, the
world’s most visited museum, which sits on the river bank, closed
so staff could remove priceless artworks from its underground
reserves as a precaution against flood damage. The Musée d’Orsay,
which holds the world’s greatest collection of impressionist
masterpieces, on the opposite bank of the Seine, will stay closed
until Tuesday to move artworks from its lowest floor. The national
library closed its François Mitterrand site on the riverbank as a
precaution and staff at the French parliament hastily removed
archives from its basement on the edge of the river.
Paris’s mayor,
Anne Hidalgo, whose staff have held crisis meetings, said there was
no risk to the population but warned it would take time for the water
levels to recede.
John and Wendy Eyre,
retired lawyers from Adelaide in Australia, had come to the river
from their holiday rental apartment to watch the water levels rising.
Standing in the drizzle on the Louis Philippe bridge near Paris’s
city hall, Wendy said: “It’s really something. We didn’t expect
flooding on the Seine.”
The Eyres, who
decided not to cancel their long planned trip after the Paris attacks
in November, had lost money when rail strikes disrupted their journey
from Lyon to Paris last week. They found themselves standing on one
of the most romantic riverscapes in the world, watching logs floating
past in the rain. “You just have to get on with enjoying your
holiday,” they said.
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