Paris shuts Louvre museum to evacuate artworks as flood waters rise

oTwo of the world’s greatest art
museums take emergency action to
protect their collections as the level of the River Seine rises to a threatening level.
Officials have closed Paris's Louvre
museum so its priceless artworks can be moved to safety amid the threat of flooding from the nearby River Seine.
The Musée d'Orsay, on the opposite bank of the river, also closed early on Thursday night as a precautionary measure.
The Louvre will remain closed on Friday to allow staff to evacuate tens of thousands of “reserve” paintings and sculptures in its
underground store rooms.
France hit by floods
Fears had been growing all day of serious flooding in Paris as the European football championship approaches – despite official
assurances that all should be well.
As scores of towns to the east and south of Paris suffered their worst flooding for decades, the river Seine rose above its “preliminary”
alert level of 5 metres on Thursday afternoon.
The Seine quays were awash. A popular island near the Eiffel Tower was submerged. Pleasure launches and commercial barges
were banned from passing through the French capital.
Elsewhere, a motorway slip-road in eastern Paris was inundated and closed, and services
on a suburban railway line which hugs the left bank of the Seine, RER C, were suspended.
François Duquesne, head of Vigicrues, the agency which monitors water levels in France,
said: “The Seine is still rising but we are far from the 8.5 metres recorded in 1910 (when large areas of the capital were flooded for 45
days). We should see a rise to a peak of around 5.6 metres overnight.
The flood alert level in Paris is at yellow, the.third highest but is expected to be upgraded
to orange shortly.. One department just east of Paris, Seine et Marne, is on “red alert”, the
highest level. Several other departments within the Seine catchment area are at the “orange”
or second highest alert level.
Other experts warned that the weather and flood levels remained unpredictable, a week
before the Euro 2016 national football
tournament begins in Paris next Friday. A giant “fan zone”, capable of hoisting up to 100,000 people has been built on the Champ de Mars, beside the Eiffel Tower and close to the river.
Flooding approaching the 1910 levels would put the fan zone under water.
In its emergency plan the Louvre has 72 hours to remove works in its underground reserve.
The Musee d'Orsay has 96 hours. Both museums held drills this year to deal with floods.
In March the Louvre evacuated the whole of the underground section of its Islamic art.galleries in a day.