Flood water receding in Paris

Flood water receding in Paris
By Catherine Hardy



"Yesterday we could only see the roof of the car and now we can see the windscreen"

Flood water slowly receding
Recovery work slowly getting underway
Concerns about high tide downstream in Seine-Maritime
There is some good news in Paris.

PARIS: -- The river Seine is steadily receding in and around the French capital.

However, many locals fear a long period of recovery lies ahead after some of the worst flooding seen in Paris region and central France for decades.

Four people are known to have died and four have been injured.

How high did the water get?

The river was at a height of 5.72 metres at 11 am local time on Sunday, according to French flood monitoring agency Vigicrues (in French).

It had reached a peak of 6.1 metres early on Saturday morning.

Swollen by heavy rain, in recent days the Seine has reached its highest level in 30 years.

Quaysides have been left inaccessible and an underground commuter line has been closed.

The worst affected areas lie just to the south of the capital.

However, even at its height the water level remained well below the record high of 8.6 metres reached in 1910, when thousands of Parisians were evacuated from their homes in low-lying areas of the city.

Is anywhere else affected?

Yes.

Normandy remains on high alert as a result of flooding along the Seine.

The level of alert in the region was reduced to orange from red on Sunday morning.

However, the Seine is still rising in places due to the twin effect of flooding combined with a high tide in the coastal estuary.

Elsewhere:

300 cars submerged on the A10 autoroute near Orleans are being recovered.
Firefighters are pumping water from the junction between the A4 autoroute and the Paris ring-road (peripherique).
15 departments (counties) remain on orange alert.
11,300 households without electricity, 10,400 in the Ile de France.