Floods on the Continent

Abstract

WHILE the peak level of the floods in the Thames Valley, reported in last week's issue of NATURE, has apparently been reached and passed, and the river, despite some additional rainfall during the weekend, is subsiding, less satisfactory reports are received from the Continent. Persistent rains all over France are stated to be causing the river discharges to assume alarming proportions, the conditions being unparalleled for a period of a quarter of a century. The Rhône, the Seine and the Loire give particular cause for anxiety. Along the banks of the last-named river, hundreds of dwellings have had to be abandoned under threatening conditions, and in Nantes itself the main railway line has been cut, while whole districts of the town are under water, which has penetrated the main squares of the city, causing business activity to be paralysed. In the Departement of Vienne, “the worst flood for seventy years” has occurred at Poitiers, where many houses have been evacuated. The Rhône Valley is again invaded: both at Lyons, at the confluence with the Saone, and at Avignon, there are extensive flooded areas. From Toulouse, a “catastrophic” situation is reported. At Paris, the Seine has been rising at the rate of eighteen inches in twenty-four hours, and has exceeded danger level. Considerable lengths of quay front are submerged and cargo handling operations are seriously impeded, where not definitely suspended. Water has entered the buildings of the Quai d'Orsay, and the Place de la Concorde is inundated for the first time since 1910. The effects of excessive precipitation are being felt with equal severity in Spain, in the northern provinces of which widespread damage has been caused and the town of Padron isolated; as also in Switzerland, where there have been a number of minor landslips, particularly in the Alps. The railway line to Chamonix has been completely blocked for some days by a mass of rock and stone. The authorities fear intensification of the trouble.