PARIS: Paris was on high alert Saturday as the swollen Seine continued to creep higher, with forecasters warning the river could stay high throughout next week, especially if more rain is dumped on France.

Leaks started to appear in some basements Friday, while some residents on the city's outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

The Louvre, Musee d´Orsay and Orangerie museums are on high alert, with the lower level of the Louvre´s Islamic art wing closed to visitors.

A health centre in the northwestern Parisian suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, had to be evacuated Friday.

Meanwhile, over 650 people were evacuated from their homes in the Paris region, according to police.

The Vigicrues flooding agency scaled back its peak predictions for the river in the capital, saying it will top out at 5.8 to 6 metres (19 to 19.7 feet) between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, compared with 6.2 metres previously.

But that would still bring the Seine four to five metres above its normal height, causing headaches for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks.

It's enough to worry Joao de Macedo, janitor at a residential building in Paris´s upscale 16th Arrondissement.

"There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water," he said.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers have been lifted off the floor as water seeps through the walls.

Outside, where the river was nearly lapping the tyres of parked vehicles, a young woman said it was "great to see ducks instead of cars".

The December-January period is now the third-wettest on record since data collection began in 1900, according to France´s meteorological service.

All boat traffic on the Seine in Paris and upstream has been stopped, keeping tourists off the capital´s famed sightseeing boats.

But forecasters said the rainfall in recent days had not been enough to push the Seine beyond their expectations.

"We've been reassured, it will keep the water level high but not increase it," said Francois Duquesne of the Vigicrues floods agency, though he warned of the risk for more rain next week.

"If it rains again from the middle of next week, something I´m not sure of at this point, we´re not necessarily done with this yet," said Marc Mortureux, risk prevention director at the French environment ministry.

But even once the water levels start to recede, forecasters say it will be a slow process, since much of the ground in northern France is already waterlogged.

The main commuter line, the RER C, has halted service at Paris stops through Wednesday, and some expressways that run alongside the Seine have been closed.

In Paris the Seine flows through a deep channel, limiting the potential flooding damage to riverside structures.

But several areas on the outskirts of the capital are under water, such as the southern suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, where some residents were getting around by boat and dozens have been evacuated from their homes.</s>Paris was on alert Saturday as the swollen River Seine continued to creep higher, with forecasters expecting the flooding to peak at the end of the weekend.

The river reached 5.7 metres at 9:00 am on Saturday, more than four metres above its normal height, causing headaches for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks.

Forecasters believe it will continue to rise, peaking on Sunday night or Monday, but will not reach the 2016 high of 6.1 metres, when the Louvre museum was forced to close its doors for four days.

But the world's most visited museum was on high alert on Saturday, along with the Musee d'Orsay and Orangerie galleries, with the lower level of the Louvre's Islamic arts wing closed to visitors.

Leaks had started to appear in some basements on Friday, while some residents on the city's outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

A health centre in Paris's northwestern suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, was also evacuated on Friday.

In total more than 650 people have been evacuated from their homes in the Paris region, according to police, while more than 1,400 were without electricity.

The Vigicrues flooding agency scaled back its peak predictions for the river in the capital, saying it will top out at 5.9 to 6 metres on Sunday evening at the earliest, compared with 6.2 metres previously.

"Due to the spread of flooding to different tributaries, the level of the Seine in Paris will continue rising again on the weekend," said Vigicrues, adding that highest level would last for about 10 hours before slowly going down.

SEE ALSO: Before and after pictures of the 2018 flooding



It's enough to worry Joao de Macedo, janitor at a residential building in Paris's upscale 16th Arrondissement.

"There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water," he said.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers have been lifted off the floor as water seeps through the walls.

Outside, where the river was nearly lapping the tyres of parked vehicles, a young woman said it was "great to see ducks instead of cars".

The December-January period is now the third-wettest on record since data collection began in 1900, according to France's meteorological service.

All boat traffic on the Seine in Paris and upstream has been stopped, keeping tourists off the capital's famed sightseeing boats.

But flooding like that of 1910, which saw the Seine rise to 8.62 metres, shutting down much of Paris's basic infrastructure, looks unlikely.

More favourable weather is expected for the week ahead, and Vigicrues has lowered its warning level from orange to yellow in several areas upstream of the capital.

But even once the water levels start to recede, forecasters say it will be a slow process, since much of the ground in northern France is already waterlogged.

A main commuter line, the RER C, has halted service at Paris stops through Wednesday, and some expressways that run alongside the Seine have been closed.

In Paris the Seine flows through a deep channel, limiting the potential flooding damage to riverside structures.

But several areas on the city's outskirts are under water, such as the southern suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, where some residents were getting around by boat and dozens have been evacuated from their homes.

In the south of France, heavy rains caused a breach in the water supply pipe of a holding tank on an oil platform in La Mede, near Marseille, on Saturday, French giant Total said.

Contaminated water, not concentrated crude oil, had leaked, Total said in a statement.</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Watch drone footage of the swollen river Seine in Paris

Riverside homes and businesses in Paris are on high alert as the swollen River Seine threatens to overflow its banks.

Weeks of rainfall have produced a relentless rise in the water level, which is expected to peak just below 6m (20ft) above normal.

Touring boats are tied up, riverside roads are sealed off and the Louvre museum has closed a lower gallery.

France has seen rain like this over the New Year period only three times in the last century.

The surging brown waters are also reportedly flushing rats out of their usual haunts below ground, the BBC's Kevin Connolly reports from the French capital.

Within Paris, the Seine runs in a deep channel which limits the effects of the rising waters. But in smaller towns along the river, our correspondent adds, shoppers and commuters have been punting boats along flooded streets. They are waiting for the waters to recede to allow the first estimates of the financial cost of the flooding to be made.

A statue of a French soldier from the Crimean War- known as The Zouave - on the Pont de l'Alma has long been used as a marker for water levels in the city.

On Saturday afternoon, the water was still well below his waist; during the historically bad floods of 1910, when the city was submerged for two months, it reached his neck.

As of 09:00 (08:00 GMT) on Saturday, the river level had reached 5.7m above normal.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Parisian anglers are getting closer to the fish

While forecasters believe it will continue to rise, peaking on Sunday night or Monday, it is not expected to reach the 2016 high of 6.1m, AFP news agency reports.

Saying the city was coping, Mayor Anne Hidalgo suggested the flooding, coupled with recent summer heat waves, was "clearly a question of the town adapting to climate change".

She warned that the high water levels would remain into next week, as water levels subside slowly due to waterlogged soil in the region.

At the Louvre, a lower level housing Islamic artwork was closed to visitors. Other famous attractions like the Musée d'Orsay and the Orangerie gallery were on high alert.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Perching seagulls are barely out of the water now

In the prestigious 16th Arrondissement (district), some basements in residential buildings were slowly being inundated.

"There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water," one caretaker, Joao de Macedo, told AFP.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers have been lifted off the floor as water seeps through the walls, the agency says.

Outside, a young woman said it was "great to see ducks instead of cars" in places.

A health centre in the north-western suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, was evacuated on Friday.</s>Paris, France is flooding again. The River Seine has risen over its banks and streets are covered with slowing moving yellowish water. The Louvre is building sandbag barriers to protect its statuary.

There is talk, as always, that the culprit is the dreaded modern boogeyman — Climate Change.

As our introductory image states, Paris is not just flooding, it is flooding again, and again, and again, and again.

“Why does the Seine, famous for its bridges, flood at all?

As one of France’s major commercial waterways, the river is closely monitored so it can accommodate a constant procession of barges and other commercial vessels. The river begins in Burgundy, in east-central France, and meanders 485 miles westward until it reaches its mouth, near the port city of Le Havre.

Upstream from Paris, four large dams control the flow of the Seine and three of its major tributaries: the Aube, the Marne and the Yonne. According to Charles Perrin, a hydrologist at the National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture, in late spring the dams start stocking large reserves of water that can be released in the drier summer months.

Dams and locks normally keep the water level consistent, particularly in the Paris region, where the Seine’s traffic is especially heavy, in part because of tourist and other recreational vessels. If the water level drops too far, the barges could scrape the riverbed and get damaged. If it gets too high, vessels cannot pass under the city’s lowest bridges.”

Last spring “The dams were already at 95 percent capacity when heavy rains started in late May, so their ability to take in the excess water was limited.” So, Paris flooded — again.

“Public authorities said they expected the Seine to crest on Sunday at up to six meters, or about 19.6 feet. In the floods of June 2016, which killed four people in France, it peaked at 20 feet.”

“Although some experts said it was hard to determine whether global warming was behind the current flood, others warned that a worrying pattern was emerging.

“Because of climate change, we can expect floods in the Seine basin to be at least as frequent as they are right now,” said Florence Habets, a senior researcher at the C.N.R.S., France’s national center for scientific research. “No matter what we say, the more we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the more we reduce our impact on droughts and floods.”

The French scientist tells us that “Because of climate change…” the flooding frequency will remain the same. Brillant!

What is the flooding frequency? Every recent flood is compared to the great flood of 1910, “in 1910, a January deluge turned Paris into Venice for a week — river levels rose nearly 30 feet above normal — causing roughly $1.5 billion worth of damage, in today’s terms. … Topographically, Paris is a basin, with hills in Montmartre and Montparnasse rising in the north and south of the city, respectively. When it comes to flooding, that means big trouble for anyone who lives in the city center, which in 1910 was not so different than it is today” [source]. “A very severe period of high water in January 1910 resulted in extensive flooding throughout the city. The Seine again rose to threatening levels in 1924, 1955, 1982, 1999–2000, June 2016, and January 2018.” [source]

The New York Times carried the story of the 1910 Paris flood — read the full original report on the front page of January 27, 1920.

This “worrying pattern” really began in the 17th Century with major Paris floods being recorded in 1649, 1651, 1658, 1690, 1711, 1732, 1740, 1779, 1795, 1802, 1830, 1836, 1879-80, 1882-83, 1886…..you get the idea here.

What’s the deal here? Again, as with Bangladesh: GEOGRAPHY.

There we have it. Four rivers flow into one another and converge just before Paris: The Seine itself, the Aube, The Yonne, and the Marne.

Google Earth reveals that the Seine is no longer a river but a channeled and closely controlled canal, complete with flood control devices and locks for the river traffic.

We see once more that the efforts to control great rivers and put them solely to our own purposes leads to unforeseen, or at least, unacknowledged, problems. The upriver dams, used to store water against the dryer summers, to maintain river levels appropriate for shipping, are allowed to fill in the Spring, find themselves nearly full — and if late summer rains come, there is nowhere to store the resultant excessive river flow — floods start upstream and spread down the river to Paris. We see this same pattern with the great rivers of the American Midwest — the Mississippi and the Missouri.

Of course, the Europeans have known all about this situation for years and years, and publish reports and recommendations such as OECD Reviews of Risk Management “Policies Seine Basin, Île-de-France: Resilience to Major Floods”.

Still, Paris floods and the blame gets shifted to anything but the real cause — inadequate action to remedy the known problems of Seine River managenment.

Remember our expert Climate Science opinion: “Because of climate change, we can expect floods in the Seine basin to be at least as frequent as they are right now,”

Love to read and respond to your on-topic comments.

Paris floods — that’s weather — so it must be Climate Change.

If you want me to respond specifically to a question or comment, address it to “Kip…” so I am sure to see it.</s>PARIS: Paris was on high alert Saturday (Jan 27) as the swollen Seine continued to creep higher, with forecasters warning the river could stay high throughout next week, especially if more rain is dumped on France.

Leaks started to appear in some basements Friday, while some residents on the city's outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

The Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Orangerie museums are on high alert, with the lower level of the Louvre's Islamic arts wing closed to visitors.

A health centre in the northwestern Parisian suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, had to be evacuated Friday.

Meanwhile over 650 people were evacuated from their homes in the Paris region, according to police.

The Vigicrues flooding agency scaled back its peak predictions for the river in the capital, saying it will top out at 5.8 to 6 metres between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, compared with 6.2 metres previously.

But that would still bring the Seine four to five metres above its normal height, causing headaches for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks.

It's enough to worry Joao de Macedo, janitor at a residential building in Paris's upscale 16th Arrondissement.

"There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water," he said.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers have been lifted off the floor as water seeps through the walls.

Outside, where the river was nearly lapping the tyres of parked vehicles, a young woman said it was "great to see ducks instead of cars".

The December-January period is now the third-wettest on record since data collection began in 1900, according to France's meteorological service.

All boat traffic on the Seine in Paris and upstream has been stopped, keeping tourists off the capital's famed sightseeing boats.

But forecasters said the rainfall in recent days had not been enough to push the Seine beyond their expectations.

"We've been reassured, it will keep the water level high but not increase it," said Francois Duquesne of the Vigicrues floods agency, though he warned of the risk for more rain next week.

"If it rains again from the middle of next week, something I'm not sure of at this point, we're not necessarily done with this yet," said Marc Mortureux, risk prevention director at the French environment ministry.

But even once the water levels start to recede, forecasters say it will be a slow process, since much of the ground in northern France is already waterlogged.

A main commuter line, the RER C, has halted service at Paris stops through Wednesday, and some expressways that run alongside the Seine have been closed.

In Paris the Seine flows through a deep channel, limiting the potential flooding damage to riverside structures.

But several areas on the outskirts of the capital are under water, such as the southern suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, where some residents were getting around by boat and dozens have been evacuated from their homes.</s>People use a dinghy boat to reach a barge on the river Seine in Paris | AP

PARIS: Paris was on alert today as the swollen Seine continued to creep higher, with forecasters expecting the flooding to peak at the end of the weekend.

The river reached 5.7 metres at 9:00 am (local time) today, more than four metres above its normal height, causing headaches for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks.

Forecasters believe it will continue to rise, peaking on Sunday night or Monday, but will not reach the 2016 high of 6.1 metres, when the Louvre museum was forced to close its doors for four days.

But the world's most visited museum was on high alert, along with the Musee d'Orsay and Orangerie galleries, with the lower level of the Louvre's Islamic arts wing closed to visitors.

Leaks had started to appear in some basements yesterday, while some residents on the city's outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

A health centre in Paris's northwestern suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, was also evacuated yesterday.

In total more than 650 people have been evacuated from their homes in the Paris region, according to police, while more than 1,400 were without electricity.

The Vigicrues flooding agency scaled back its peak predictions for the river in the capital, saying it will top out at 5.9 to 6 metres tomorrow evening at the earliest, compared with 6.2 metres previously.

"Due to the spread of flooding to different tributaries, the level of the Seine in Paris will continue rising again on the weekend," said Vigicrues, adding that highest level would last for about 10 hours before slowly going down.

It's enough to worry Joao de Macedo, janitor at a residential building in Paris's upscale 16th Arrondissement.

"There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water," he said.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers have been lifted off the floor as water seeps through the walls.

Outside, where the river was nearly lapping the tyres of parked vehicles, a young woman said it was "great to see ducks instead of cars".

The December-January period is now the third-wettest on record since data collection began in 1900, according to France's meteorological service.

All boat traffic on the Seine in Paris and upstream has been stopped, keeping tourists off the capital's famed sightseeing boats.

However fears of flooding like that of 1910, which saw the Seine rise to 8.62 metres, shutting down much of Paris's basic infrastructure, looks unlikely.

More favourable weather is expected for the week ahead, and Vigicrues has lowered its warning level from orange to yellow in several areas upstream of the capital.

But even once the water levels start to recede, forecasters say it will be a slow process, since much of the ground in northern France is already waterlogged.

A main commuter line, the RER C, has halted service at Paris stops through Wednesday, and some expressways that run alongside the Seine have been closed.

In Paris the Seine flows through a deep channel, limiting the potential flooding damage to riverside structures.

But several areas on the city's outskirts are under water, such as the southern suburb of Villeneuve-SaintGeorges, where some residents were getting around by boat and dozens have been evacuated from their homes.

In the south of France, heavy rains caused a breach in the water supply pipe of a holding tank on an oil platform in La Mede, near Marseille, on Saturday, French giant Total said.

Contaminated water, not concentrated crude oil, had leaked, Total said in a statement.</s>Paris was on high alert Saturday as the swollen Seine continued to creep higher, with forecasters warning the river could stay high throughout next week, especially if more rain is dumped on France.

Leaks started to appear in some basements Friday, while some residents on the city's outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

The Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Orangerie museums are on high alert, with the lower level of the Louvre's Islamic arts wing closed to visitors.

A health centre in the northwestern Parisian suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, had to be evacuated Friday.

Meanwhile over 650 people were evacuated from their homes in the Paris region, according to police.

The Vigicrues flooding agency scaled back its peak predictions for the river in the capital, saying it will top out at 5.8 to 6 metres (19 to 19.7 feet) between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, compared with 6.2 metres previously.

But that would still bring the Seine four to five metres above its normal height, causing headaches for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks.

It's enough to worry Joao de Macedo, janitor at a residential building in Paris's upscale 16th Arrondissement.

"There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water," he said.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers have been lifted off the floor as water seeps through the walls.

Outside, where the river was nearly lapping the tyres of parked vehicles, a young woman said it was "great to see ducks instead of cars".

The December-January period is now the third-wettest on record since data collection began in 1900, according to France's meteorological service.

All boat traffic on the Seine in Paris and upstream has been stopped, keeping tourists off the capital's famed sightseeing boats.

But forecasters said the rainfall in recent days had not been enough to push the Seine beyond their expectations.

"We've been reassured, it will keep the water level high but not increase it," said Francois Duquesne of the Vigicrues floods agency, though he warned of the risk for more rain next week.

"If it rains again from the middle of next week, something I'm not sure of at this point, we're not necessarily done with this yet," said Marc Mortureux, risk prevention director at the French environment ministry.

But even once the water levels start to recede, forecasters say it will be a slow process, since much of the ground in northern France is already waterlogged.

A main commuter line, the RER C, has halted service at Paris stops through Wednesday, and some expressways that run alongside the Seine have been closed.

In Paris the Seine flows through a deep channel, limiting the potential flooding damage to riverside structures.

But several areas on the outskirts of the capital are under water, such as the southern suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, where some residents were getting around by boat and dozens have been evacuated from their homes.</s>PARIS - Paris was on high alert Saturday (Jan 27) as the swollen Seine continued to creep higher, with forecasters warning the river could stay high throughout next week, especially if more rain is dumped on France.

Leaks started to appear in some basements Friday, while some residents on the city's outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

The Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Orangerie museums are on high alert, with the lower level of the Louvre's Islamic arts wing closed to visitors.

A health centre in the northwestern Parisian suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, had to be evacuated Friday.

Meanwhile, over 650 people were evacuated from their homes in the Paris region, according to police.

The Vigicrues flooding agency scaled back its peak predictions for the river in the capital, saying it will top out at 5.8 to 6 metres between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, compared with 6.2 metres previously.

But that would still bring the Seine four to five metres above its normal height, causing headaches for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks.

It's enough to worry Joao de Macedo, janitor at a residential building in Paris's upscale 16th Arrondissement.

"There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water," he said.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers have been lifted off the floor as water seeps through the walls.

Outside, where the river was nearly lapping the tyres of parked vehicles, a young woman said it was "great to see ducks instead of cars".

The December-January period is now the third-wettest on record since data collection began in 1900, according to France's meteorological service.

All boat traffic on the Seine in Paris and upstream has been stopped, keeping tourists off the capital's famed sightseeing boats.

But forecasters said the rainfall in recent days had not been enough to push the Seine beyond their expectations.

"We've been reassured, it will keep the water level high but not increase it," said Francois Duquesne of the Vigicrues floods agency, though he warned of the risk for more rain next week.

"If it rains again from the middle of next week, something I'm not sure of at this point, we're not necessarily done with this yet," said Marc Mortureux, risk prevention director at the French environment ministry.

But even once the water levels start to recede, forecasters say it will be a slow process, since much of the ground in northern France is already waterlogged.

A main commuter line, the RER C, has halted service at Paris stops through Wednesday, and some expressways that run alongside the Seine have been closed.

In Paris the Seine flows through a deep channel, limiting the potential flooding damage to riverside structures.

But several areas on the outskirts of the capital are under water, such as the southern suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, where some residents were getting around by boat and dozens have been evacuated from their homes.</s>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 anxiously out at the rising river.

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.

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.

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.

Public authorities said they expected the Seine to crest Saturday morning at up to 6 metres. In the floods of June 2016, which killed four people in France, it peaked at 6 metres.

In Paris, where the Seine rose above 5.5 metres Friday, river traffic has been interrupted and roads along the river banks remained closed. A central portion of the RER C train line has been shut until the end of the month, and the government activated a plan that could let it relocate work from some ministries if the situation worsens.

Bourlier was among the lucky ones: As of Thursday night, 400 people had been evacuated from homes in the Paris region, and a thousand faced power cuts, according to the police prefecture. Rivers have swelled across the country, forcing evacuations and the closing of roads and infrastructure.

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, although the Louvre shut the lower level of its department of Islamic Arts. The city authorities have also called on people to stay away from the river banks.

Although some experts said it was hard to determine whether global warming was behind the current flood, others warned that a worrying pattern was emerging.

“Because of climate change, we can expect floods in the Seine basin to be at least as frequent as they are right now,” said Florence Habets, a senior researcher at the CNRS, France’s national centre for scientific research. “No matter what we say, the more we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the more we reduce our impact on droughts and floods.”

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, a left-wing politician who has been at the forefront of the fight against climate change, was also quick to mention long-term challenges.

“Beyond the emergency, this flooding phenomenon, which is more and more recurrent in Paris, reminds us how important it is for our city to adapt to climate change,” she said in a tweet.

Deputy Mayor Colombe Brossel said in a phone interview that although the situation was serious, the floods would have few concrete consequences in Paris.

They were certainly far less severe than some the city endured during the past century. In 1910, the Seine rose above 8.5 metres, giving Paris “the aspect of a beleaguered place,” according to a New York Times report of the time.

Although local officials said they were now prepared to face similar conditions, experts from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated that such a catastrophe could affect 5 million people and cost up to 30 billion euros (about $37 billion).

In a study published Tuesday, they noted that though Paris had implemented further flood prevention policies since 2014, the authorities’ efforts remained limited compared with the risks the city faced.

“Examples from the reconstruction of a resilient New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, or New York after Sandy, could inspire Paris to build up its own resilience before disaster hits,” they wrote.

Heavy rains also flooded parts of eastern and northwestern France this week, blocking roads and inundating households that had already been affected by the torrential rains of 2016.

One of the most affected areas was the town of Villeneuve-St.-Georges, 16 kilometres south of Paris, where the military had to help residents evacuate their homes and propel themselves on dinghies through streets flooded with brownish water and waste.

“For some people, this is the second time in 18 months that they have been victims of floods,” Alexandre Boyer, a local councilman, said. “It’s beginning to get a little too much.”</s>Paris remains on high alert as the swollen river Seine continues to rise, with forecasters saying the river could stay high next week, especially if France has more rain.

Leaks started to appear in some basements on Friday, while some residents on the city’s outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

The Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and Orangerie museums were on high alert, with the lower level of the Louvre’s Islamic arts wing closed to visitors.

A health centre in the north-western suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, had to be evacuated on Friday. Across the Paris region, more than 650 people have been evacuated from their homes, according to police.

The Vigicrues flooding agency reduced its peak predictions for the river in the capital, saying it would top out at 5.8-6 metres (19-20ft) between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, compared with 6.2 metres previously. However, that would still bring the Seine 4-5 metres above its normal height, causing problems for commuters and people living near its banks.

Joao de Macedo, a janitor at a residential building in Paris’s upscale 16th arrondissement, said: “There are six studios in the basement, and we’ve had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water.”

The December-January period is now the third wettest since data collection began in 1900, according to France’s meteorological service.

All boat traffic on the Seine in Paris and upstream has been stopped, including sightseeing boats.

Forecasters said the rainfall in recent days had not been enough to push the Seine beyond their expectations.

“We’ve been reassured, [the rain] will keep the water level high but not increase it,” said François Duquesne, of Vigicrues, though he warned of the risk of more rain next week.

A main commuter line, the RER C, has halted services at Paris stops and some key roads alongside the Seine have been closed.
Riverside homes and businesses in Paris are on high alert as the swollen River Seine threatens to overflow its banks.