Rain continued to drench Paris Friday, doing nothing to alleviate the massive flooding of the Seine river, which is expected to crest this evening at 20 to 21 feet — its highest level since 1982. Thankfully, it appears the flooding will fall short of 26 feet, the level reached during the disastrous flood of January 1910.
Still, the Louvre museum was closed all day in order to properly protect art from the rising waters, and one cannot walk through many parts of central Paris. "People have started to leave their homes because there is water in the streets, and they don't want to stay if it means wearing rain boots inside," one Parisian told The New York Times.
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At its highest point so far, the waters reached the waist of the statue of the Zouave at the Alma bridge, a century-old marker Parisians use to gauge the height of the Seine. Typically when the water reaches just the feet of the statue, one can expect "major chaos in Paris, as the river banks and the Metro (underground)" close. In the 1910 flood, the waters reached the statue's shoulders.
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