This isn't out until January but several things struck me as I was reading that can't really go into a blurb. The first - how visible officials were, they not only visited the worst hit areas, they sent aid when it was requested sometimes in a matter of hours. In Jackson's book there are numerous photos of Louis Lapine prefect of police and the Premier and President - Briand and Fallieres wading in mud, sitting in rescue boats, showing the people their government was in this disaster with them. Not one minister left his post - in fact the National Assembly continued to meet even as its corridors filled with flood water.
Second the modernisation of Paris, especially the Metro enabled the flood waters to reach farther into the city, in some cases engineering made the situation worse.
I couldn't help comparing the Paris flood of 1910 with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Lastly the 1910 flood lasted just over a week and stretched the civilised Parisian's social fabric to breaking point. If it had continued into the second week this might have been a different story. Take away our creature comforts for a couple of weeks and watch us descend into chaos.
3 comments:
The 1910 Paris flood lasted a week? I thought it was much longer. It started on Friday January 21st when the compressed-air generating station on the Quai de la Rapée was flooded and stopped nearly all the public clocks in Paris, which were worked by air. Flood maximum was reached on Jan 29th at 8.62 metres above normal the Pont d'Alma (nearly 28.5 feet) although there were areas submerged to a mean level of 9.25 metres.
After briefly receeding, allowing some recovery work to begin, the river level rose again from February 8th to 11th and for the final time from Feb 14th to 17th.
It wasn't until Feb 18th that the Seine dropped back to its normal winter level and didn't flood the city again until 1924.
Angus, thanks for the comment. I think the author was trying to convey the very worst of the floods although I'm not defending him and while the Parisians had it bad those upstream lost entire communities to the swollen river and those downstream had to contend with the debris the Seine carried down to them in addition to the devastation caused by the floods.
I will put a caveat on my review. I think I was more interested in the fact that Paris flooded and not just once. I suppose that's my reward for skipping European history lessons:-)
Your comments noted. :-)
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