Flooding in Paris

Five days ago, Paris, France received over 2 inches of rain in just one hour. For us here in the Upper Valley, that might not seem like much compared to our flooding last year, but in France it’s very rare to get that much rain in such a short amount of time. On average, Pairs only receives 1.3 inches of rain annually, while we receive an average of 16.5 inches each year.

By the end of the day on Friday in Paris, water was beginning to leak through basement cracks in residential buildings along the Seine. In just 12 hours the river had reached 16 feet, which is 9 feet above its normal height. By Sunday afternoon, the Seine was set to hit peak height which was around 19 feet. A statue of a French soldier from the Crimean War in the Pont de l’Alma has long been used for a marker of water levels in the city, on Saturday afternoon the water was reaching to his knees. As of right now, touring boats are tied off, riverside roads are sealed off and the lower gallery of the Louvre Museum is closed, with water cascading down the steps of Porte de Pantin kept tourists off the capital’s famed Bateaux Mouches. The flooding has also caused the evacuation of over 1,500 residents who had to take boats and kayaks to safer areas.

The last time Paris had seen such a devastating natural disaster was 50 years ago, in 1968. This flood was caused by exceptionally heavy rain and thunderstorms in South West England during July and France during mid September. Within the first seven hours of the storm over three inches of rain fell on Nice, on average Nice which only receive 5 inches of rain annually. The flooding in 1968 lead to only one recorded death of a man who was electrocuted when a telephone wire fell into the water where he was biking. So far the recent flooding in Paris has not had any casualties, but with water still being above average heights and not seeming to recede there is a chance for worse things to happen.