[vox_mundi]

Paris Flood Estimates Off Due to Blocked Sensor

A French official says a blocked sensor led Parisian authorities to underestimate for hours the rising waters of the swollen Seine River.

Regional environment director Jerome Goellner tells The Associated Press that a piece of trash was trapped in an underwater sensor near the Austerlitz Bridge, which measures the river's height. He says that shaved 30 centimeters (nearly a foot) off estimates of the river's surging levels until authorities realized what was wrong.

The Seine has so far risen about 4.5 meters (15 feet) from its typical position following days of heavy rains. It is now at its highest level in 35 years.


Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

The French government is preparing for possible evacuations of residents at a Paris campground and islands and a suburb west of the capital because of the worst flooding in decades.

The Environment Ministry says floods have hit city squares, basements and garages of the wealthy 16th district of Paris. Authorities are particularly concerned about protecting electrical lines from the rising waters.

The ministry said in a statement Friday that "there should be impacts upstream from Paris" and "possible evacuations."

Areas of focus are the Bois du Boulogne, a vast park on the city's western edge, the islands Ile de la Jatte and Ile Saint-Germain in the Seine River, and the suburb of Rueil-Malmaison.

The interior ministry says 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes across France in operations involving thousands of firefighters, military personnel and other officials.

Paris City Hall is shutting some parks and cemeteries and is opening gymnasiums to shelter homeless people amid floods that city authorities say could take weeks to recede.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo said authorities are taking emergency measures because of dangers that trees weakened by rising water levels could fall on passers-by.

Speaking at a crisis center to deal with the worst flooding in the French capital in decades, Hidalgo said authorities are monitoring basements and garages at risk of flooding from rising groundwater.

She said the floods are already hurting the city economy, but no residents have been evacuated yet.

The German Insurance Association estimates this week's flooding has caused some 450 million euros ($500 million) in damage in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg alone.

[onlooker]

I think the Paris situation is a alert that some coastal cities are now very vulnerable to flooding from extreme weather events and the slowly rising seas.

[jedrider]

I think the Paris situation is a alert that some coastal cities are now very vulnerable to flooding from extreme weather events and the slowly rising seas.

Paris is NOT a coastal city AFAIK. However, the combination of SLR and extreme precipitation can be a problem for many cities.

So, the world is turning into desert and swamp and one's goal should be to live somewhere in between the two. Seems like a set for Triassic world.

[sparky]

.
At 6.5 metres , this flood is rather average , the measure of the water level , as any French would know is the statue of the Zouave on the Alma bridge , the worst was the 1910 flood when the water rose to the shoulders .

http://www.hydrologie.org/PHO/1910/1910.htm

[onlooker]

I think the Paris situation is a alert that some coastal cities are now very vulnerable to flooding from extreme weather events and the slowly rising seas.

Paris is NOT a coastal city AFAIK. However, the combination of SLR and extreme precipitation can be a problem for many cities.

So, the world is turning into desert and swamp and one's goal should be to live somewhere in between the two. Seems like a set for Triassic world.

No, but it highlights that if non coastal cities can be inundated like this imagine how bad it can and will get in coastal cities.

[Tanada]

I think the Paris situation is a alert that some coastal cities are now very vulnerable to flooding from extreme weather events and the slowly rising seas.

Paris is NOT a coastal city AFAIK. However, the combination of SLR and extreme precipitation can be a problem for many cities.

So, the world is turning into desert and swamp and one's goal should be to live somewhere in between the two. Seems like a set for Triassic world.

No, but it highlights that if non coastal cities can be inundated like this imagine how bad it can and will get in coastal cities.

Paris is built more or less on an old swamp and is no further above sea level that cities like Orlando, Florida. Northern France is a broad very flat plain very gradually sloping from the English Chanel sea level to the highlands three quarters of the way to the Mediterranean Sea on the southern coast of France.

[kiwichick]

sea level would have to rise at least 30 metres for Paris to be significantly affected


http://flood.firetree.net/

[Tanada]

sea level would have to rise at least 30 metres for Paris to be significantly affected


http://flood.firetree.net/

Define "significant". Long before that level of rise a vast percentage of the farmland in France would either be under water or poisoned from salt water intrusion. You can't support large cities without growing or importing a lot of food.

[dohboi]

This seems to be a good site to keep track of major flood events worldwide: http://floodlist.com/

[dohboi]

http://www.thebigwobble.org/2016/06/at- ... eadly.html

At least 30 people dead as deadly floods hit Pakistan: Winds strong enough to break windows

[dohboi]

Earlier this week, Météo France noted that May 2016 had been the rainiest month since 1886.

So these were indeed historical and extremely unusual amounts of rainfall for France.

“These events...fit the pattern that we expect with global warming where we see more intense rainfall events. With increasing temperatures, we see higher temperatures and more rainfall.”

http://en.rfi.fr/france/20160602-floods ... ge-experts

[kiwichick]

@ T......did you have a look at the map?


France looks pretty good compared to some other places like the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark , Germany and England

or further south, Egypt , Iraq and Qatar

or Bangladesh, Pakistan or China

or , perhaps closer to home , the Mississippi valley and the eastern coast of the USA

[dohboi]

Yeah, there's a whole province of China, Jiangsu (north of Shanghai) that is almost all only about a meter above sea level. Almost 100 million people live there.

That's just one province in one country. And as T points out, you don't have to actually be inundated to be hugely affected by the encroaching sea, especially with ever increasing storms.

More and more people will have powerful storms pushing huge amounts of sea water toward coastal cities and villages, while at the same time beyond-biblical amounts rain will be coming down flooding toward them from the mainland. There will just be no where for all that water to go.

[onlooker]

https://www.sott.net/article/319562-Flo ... ne-Romania


Floods around the world: USA, Mexico, Russia, China, France, Germany, Belgium, Ukraine, Romania

[kiwichick]

yes it seems crazy that there is a theory(??) that AGW has been invented by China when they will be among the countries to lose the most if all the ice melts

[Tanada]

@ T......did you have a look at the map?


France looks pretty good compared to some other places like the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark , Germany and England

or further south, Egypt , Iraq and Qatar

or Bangladesh, Pakistan or China

or , perhaps closer to home , the Mississippi valley and the eastern coast of the USA

Perhaps I should have been a bit clearer in my phrasing, France is not self sufficient in food like they were a hundred years ago. They import from all over the world market just like everyone else. If sea levels start rising significantly a lot of the world food supply is going to disappear, in your example Egypt will lose the current delta, where they grow most of their wheat, and will have to wait for the Nile river silt to rebuild a new higher delta before they can grow it again. The same thing is true of India where much of their best crop land is delta deposits of silt on the Indian Ocean. In the USA the silt deposits are used to grow most of the rice crop growing in the USA, which is actually a significant source of calories people here tend to overlook.

Then when you add in refugees from Bangladesh or The Netherlands or Louisiana that currently live at or below sea levels who will be displaced by any significant sea level rise and Paris will be in a world of hurt a very long time before sea levels would actually encroach on the city limits.

[dohboi]

"Then when you add in refugees from Bangladesh or The Netherlands..."

My guess is that The Netherlands is going to be one country that does just fine for quite a while yet, because they are one of the few countries that are really taking the issue seriously and have the knowledge and resources to do something about it. Their expertise will also be in very high demand around the world as more and more areas look to ways to hold back the sea from crucial infrastructure.

Note also that they are the largest exporters of food in the world, after the US!

[Synapsid]

Tanada,

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Nile silt to rebuild the Delta. The Aswan High Dam put paid to flooding and silt renewal half a century or more ago.

The Delta sediments continue to compact, lowering the surface, but the lack of annual flooding (one of the benefits the dam was supposed to provide?) has meant that there's no silt coming in to counteract the subsidence. The reduced flow from the Nile has also allowed seawater to infiltrate the Delta, and that has reduced both the area of arable land and its productivity.

Herodotus called Egypt "the gift of the Nile"; building the Aswan High Dam amounted to refusing it.

[kiwichick]

Thanks T ...and Syn.....both good points

[dohboi]

Global Warming Will Drive ‘Extreme Rain’ And Flooding, Study Finds

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glo ... 0f99d796ab

Almost two months rain in two hours brings Taiwan to a standstill

http://www.thebigwobble.org/2016/06/alm ... hours.html

Beijing just had its heaviest rains in 60 years, too

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picture ... years.html

Climate insanity seems to be breaking out all over. Is anyone paying attention or connecting these friggin' dots?

ETA: Here's an overview of some of the recent major downpours and flooding around the world:

https://www.sott.net/article/319562-Flo ... ne-Romania

Floods around the world: USA, Mexico, Russia, China, France, Germany, Belgium, Ukraine, Romania

I hadn't heard about the last two.