FLOODS: Paris is preparing for a flood peak on Sunday evening …
The Seine continued in the night from Saturday to Sunday its slow rise in Paris, waiting for the flood peak expected at the very end of the weekend, while the situation improved upstream from the capital, Vigicrues said.
Vigicrues refined its forecast Saturday afternoon: about 5.95 m in the night from Sunday to Monday, lower than the flood of June 2016 (6.10 m). At the station of Austerlitz Bridge, Sunday at 5 am, the Seine continued to rise in the night, and was at 5.78 m, 14 cm increase in 24 hours. “The rise is a little slower than expected, so the maximum expected is offset in the Monday to Sunday evening,” said AFP a spokesman for the watchdog, Rachel Puechberty.
Two people canoeing verbalized
The light brown water reached Saturday the thighs of Zouave at the Pont de l’Alma. Not far away, the riverboats, banned from navigation, remained docked and only firefighters circulating. Drowned bank on tracks, only emerged rows of trees, some panels and the water surface with floating garbage.
Transports perturbés et musées en alerte : Paris se prépare à un pic de crue alors que la Seine continue à monter https://t.co/MMQkogPVeF par @Jackdelux #AFP pic.twitter.com/xt0iDc2Xwq
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) 28 January 2018
While two people aboard an inflatable canoe were verbalized Saturday morning near the Gare d’Austerlitz, the prefecture recalled that it was “forbidden and especially extremely dangerous to canoe or swim in the Seine, whose rate is currently 1,600 cubic meters per second, “according to Lt. Col. Olivier Gaudard.
Upstream of the capital, the situation improved gradually. Vigicrues has lowered Saturday vigilance “yellow”, against “orange” before, during several stretches of water in the Paris Basin: Seine upstream (Aube) downstream Yonne (Yonne and Seine-et-Marne) and Armançon (Dawn, Côte-d’Or Yonne).
The closed Ctoujours RSP
The decline could be “very slow”, told AFP Colombe Brossel Assistant Security mayor of Paris, adding that the city remained “a very great vigilance on the situation of groundwater in the basement “. “If we talk about completely return to normal, this will count in weeks,” said the head of state services for the Environment in the region (DRIEE), Jérôme Goellner.
Le pic de crue de la Seine est attendu ce week-end à Paris #AFP pic.twitter.com/oW1D7lRVn9
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) 27 January 2018
In total, 1,000 people were evacuated in Île-de-France , said the police headquarters Saturday. And just under 1,500 homes on 6.2 million without electricity, according Enedis who installed dozens of generators. On the transport side, seven Paris RER C stations, along the river, remained closed until further notice. Neither the stations or channels are not flooded but the security work do not allow trains to run.
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The floods affecting various French regions are due to rain on waterlogged soils. The two-month period from December to January is one of the three wettest since records began in 1900, according to Météo-France. “The soils are waterlogged, so this is a vulnerability factor if he should still be heavy rain later in the winter,” warned Hervé Vanlaer, Deputy Director General for Risk Prevention in the Ministry ecological Transition.
The forecasts are less rain for the coming week. Meteo France still left 12 departments on “orange alert because of flooding on the basins of the Seine, the Saone and their tributaries,” but their number should decrease.
Overall, “the flood recession are now well underway on most upstream parts of rivers,” summarized Vigicrues. Although this flood in 2018 was significant, the nightmare scenario of a historic flood like 1910 have been avoided, where the Seine reached 8.62 m.