Seine of the crime: Bursting river sets off flood alerts

PARIS— Must France simply get used to flooding?

The Seine River overflowed its banks again in Paris and several nearby cities this week, a mere 18 months after reaching its highest level since 1982.

Thirteen of France’s 96 administrative departments had flood alerts as of Friday, in what the monitoring body Météo-France says is the country’s wettest winter since 1959.

Some experts suggest climate change is likely to make such events more frequent. And an international body chose this week to publish a study arguing that Paris and the rest of the Seine basin needed greater protection against the risk of a catastrophic flood.

“All we can do is put up scaffolding to make a pontoon and hope that the water doesn’t come up much higher,” Diane Bourlier, a 63-year-old who lives on a houseboat in Paris, said as she looked out at the rising river.

As of Thursday night, 400 people had been evacuated from homes in the Paris region and1,000 faced power cuts, according to the police prefecture.

In Paris, where the Seine rose above 5.5 metres Friday, river traffic has been interrupted and roads along the river banks remained closed.

Public authorities said they expected the Seine to crest Saturday morning at up to six metres. In the floods of June 2016, which killed four people in France, it peaked at six metres.

During those floods, several monuments had to be closed, including the Louvre Museum, where artworks had to be evacuated. All museums remained open this week