By Jeffrey H. Jackson
Within the iciness of 1910, the river that introduced existence to Paris—the Seine—became a strength of destruction in a question of hours. Torrential rainfall saturated the soil, and defective engineering created stipulations that quickly drowned Parisian streets, houses, companies, and museums, thrusting town of sunshine right into a conflict with the weather. Given the Parisians’ historical past of deep-seated social, spiritual, and political strife, many apprehensive that they wouldn’t be capable to collaborate to confront the predicament. but whereas the sewers, M?tro, and electrical energy failed round them, Parisians of all backgrounds rallied to save lots of town and each other. Improvising innovations to maintain Paris functioning and braving the hazards of collapsing infrastructure and looters, leaders and citizens alike spoke back the decision to motion. In breathtaking element, Jeffrey Jackson captures right here for the 1st time the epic tale of the nice flood. because the waters upward push, so does the strain, yet eventually, the Parisians’ love in their urban leads them to conquer nature opposed to all odds.
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Additional info for Paris Under Water: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910
Sample text
Frightened wine merchants yanked on rubber waders and slogged through waist-high water trying to wrestle the enormous casks back into their warehouses with long poles in an effort to save their stock. Inside the warehouses, many more casks bobbed and floated in several feet of water, crashing into one another as the current pushed them around. After only a brief soak in muddy water, much of the city’s precious wine supply began to spoil. For warehouse owners and workers, those barrels of wine meant income and labor.
Near Dijon in the south, the river Ouche trapped people on their rooftops, and rising water stopped a train on its tracks. At Saint-Martin d’Auxerre, near the Swiss border, a mudslide left victims stranded on their roofs. In the town of Fontaines, near Lyon, telephone poles had been ripped up from the ground. This was clearly a national crisis. This page intentionally left blank Chapter Two t h e R I V E R AT TA C K S bB Parisians established wooden walkways, called passerelles, so they could continue to move about the city during the high water.
11 Repairmen from the sewer service, he noted, were on the scene. Perhaps Lépine realized that this minor cave-in could lead to larger problems, especially if the volume of water grew. But if he had any such concerns, Lépine omitted them from his daily report. the SURPRISING RISE of the SEINE 37 Based on what the Hydrometric Service knew about the patterns of France’s rivers, its agents expected floods during the winter of 1909– 1910. Exceptionally high rainfall the previous summer had saturated the soil, elevating groundwater throughout the region.