Severe Flooding Kills 10, Forces Evacuations Across Europe; Louvre Museum Evacuating Masterpieces

Eric Chaney
Published: June 3,2016
The Louvre Museum in Paris closed its doors to visitors Friday to focus on removing art from areas threatened by the rising Seine River.
The Louvre hasn't had to remove art for a flooding event in over 100 years museum spokeswoman told the Associated Press, but according to the BBC, the Seine has risen at least 16 feet higher than its normal levels.
A slow-moving storm system that continues to inch its way across the continent has already dumped large amounts of heavy rain in France, Germany, Belgium. The resulting flooding has killed at least 8 people and prompted evacuations across Europe.

The system at times produced extremely intense and record-breaking rainfall. According to weather.com meteorologist Tom Moore, portions of northeast France (near the border with Belgium) received six full weeks of rain in just a 24-hour period during the multi-day event.

Germany

Police in Germany say they've found the body of a fifth victim after floods swept part of Bavaria. The police said in a statement that the body of a man was found Thursday at a property in the town of Simbach am Inn. Flooding forced helicopter rescues in the same town and trapped schoolchildren in a school in the nearby city of Triftern.

"About 250 school children are still in their classes," Walter Czech, mayor of Triftern bei Pfarrkirchen in the Rottal district, told broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk. "Fortunately, the building is located on a mountain. But perhaps the children have to spend the night in the gym because the access roads are impassable."

 

(MORE: Here's What Caused the Deadly Flooding in Europe)

 

Triftern police told Bayerische Rundfunk that  several  people in the nearby village of Simbach were rescued by helicopters and evacuated to the Triftern police station.

 

According to Czech, the flooding situation had gotten dramatically worse on Wednesday, with the whole center of Triftern, a town of just over 5,000 people on the Austrian border, flooded by the Altbach river

"In the last week southern Germany has seen 400+ percent of its average rainfall," said weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Belles.

Train traffic between Saxon capital Dresden and the Czech Republic was briefly halted after a mudslide, the Local reports. And firefighters in Bremen and Hanover were kept busy pumping out flooded cellars overnight as heavy rain swept into low-lying parts of the cities – including the Bremen fire service's own underground gym.
At least 4 people are likely dead in another part of the country as a result of the same heavy rains. In Schwaebisch Gmuend, a firefighter and a man he was trying to rescue were sucked into a flooded underpass. Both men were presumed dead, though their bodies hadn't yet been recovered Monday, police said.
"As far as we can humanly judge, both are dead," a spokesman for the state interior ministry in Stuttgart told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"It appears that Schwaebisch Gmuend is in a valley, so that may have played a roll in that water may have pooled in the valley," said Belles.
(MORE: 35 Injured After Lightning Strikes Children's Soccer Match in Germany)
The body of a third victim was found in a flooded garage in Weissbach near the city of Heilbronn. And in Schorndorf, near Stuttgart, a train fatally struck a 13-year-old girl as she sheltered from the rain under a railway bridge Sunday evening.
A 12-year-old boy who was with her was unharmed, but is receiving psychiatric support after the incident, the Morning Herald reported.
In the small town of Braunsbach, two streams burst their banks, unleashing floodwaters that destroyed one house, damaged several others and left streets strewn with debris.
Much of Germany experienced heavy rainstorms over the weekend. The heavy downpours also affected the state of Bavaria in the southeast, causing severe damage to properties in the area of Mittelfranken, where Nuremberg is situated.
Several residents in the Bavarian town of Frankenhoehe described the scenes to the Morning Herald as "like after the war".
Martin Jonas, a meteorologist at the German Weather Service, told the paper the unusually slow movement of the rainstorms had led to the severe flooding.
"The unusual thing about yesterday was that we were in a situation of relatively low pressure," Jonas said. "For that reason, the intensive downpours stayed above the same areas for a relatively long time.

France

Thursday it was announced that the Louvre Museum will be shut down Friday to remove art from rooms threatened by rising floodwaters from the Seine.

According to the Associated Press, the pieces will be moved upstairs temporarily. The infamous “Mona Lisa” painted by Leonardo da Vinci will remain in its location on the upper floor. The Orsay museum on the Seine’s left bank will also be closed Friday to prepare for potential flooding.  It's the first time art has had to be moved since 1993, when the museum was renovated. 

The Louvre is located right along the Seine River in Paris, France. As water levels rise, authorities are worried about the invaluable artwork inside the famous museum. (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

The highest risk areas in the Louvre are the underground storage rooms that house about 200,000 pieces of art, the AP reports.
"I am really sorry, but we're closed today," one staffer told visitors. "We have to evacuate masterpieces from the basement."
French officials say that a second person has died in flooding that has hit large parts of the country.
France's interior ministry said Friday that the 74-year-old man fell into a river in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris. He was riding a horse at the time of the accident on Thursday evening. No other details were provided.
Earlier this week, an 86-year-old woman died in her flooded home in Souppes-sur-Loing, southeast of Paris.
Her body was found floating in about 7 inches of water, according to La République. Officials presume that the woman drowned, but are unsure whether she passed before her home flooded. The investigation is ongoing and an autopsy will be performed Friday.
Major flooding caused by a slow-moving storm system in Europe prompted water rescues and evacuations in France Wednesday and caused the Seine River to overflow.
Authorities in the town of Nemours evacuated the town's center on Wednesday, and members of a canoe club were among those assisting in the rescues.
The Seine River overflowed its banks and Paris City Hall shut down roads along its shores from the Left Bank in the east to the Eiffel Tower neighborhood in the west. Water levels rose at least 14 feet higher than usual.
In the Pas-de-Calais region of far northern France, rescue workers evacuated some residents and ordered others to higher floors in their homes as rivers rose as much as 3 feet in some areas, local authorities said.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told the Associated Press that emergency workers have carried out more than 8,000 rescue operations from the Belgian border south to the Burgundy over the past two days. He urged people to exercise the "greatest caution."

A fireman crosses a flooded road with a person on his back following heavy rainfalls on May 31, 2016 in Meung-sur-Loire southern Orleans, France.
(GUILLAUME SOUVANT/AFP/Getty Images)

France has seen rain and storms now for several days. During a sudden storm Saturday, a lightning bolt struck a children's birthday party at a Paris park. Five of the 11 people hit remained hospitalized Tuesday.
All matches at the French Open were canceled Monday, the first all-day shutdown in 16 years. Matches got underway on Tuesday, but play was soon disrupted again by rain.
Canadian tourist Helene Gazaille, who was visiting Paris to celebrate her 50th birthday, was determined to have a good trip even if that meant stuffing plastic bags into her sneakers in the morning and using a hair dryer to dry them out at night.
Others like Tang Jiru, a 26-year-old Chinese groom-to-be, looked on the bright side of the gray weather. Posing for photos with his fiancee in the Trocadero's Warsaw fountains, across from the Eiffel Tower, he said he was pleased despite - or maybe even because of - the driving rain.
"The weather, it's like blue. Blue means romantic," he said, his white tie-tuxedo-and-waistcoat combo becoming increasingly wet as his 27-year-old bride-to-be, Liu Yuan Yuan, smiled in her rain-sodden wedding dress.
"Every time you take a photo, it's a sunny day. But it's a rainy day, (so) oh it's special!" said Tang, who is getting married in September in Shanghai but had flown to Paris for the express purpose of taking romantic photos.

Belgium

Rescue workers in Belgium have found the body of a beekeeper who was swept away by rising waters while trying to protect his hives.
The man was reported missing in the village of Harsin on Thursday. Local authorities said the man, in his 60s, was found on Friday morning after fire department divers resumed the search for him.
After days of heavy rain, the Wamme river overflowed its banks and flooded several villages. Homes were inundated and cars swept away.
After widespread flooding hit northern Antwerp and the west of Flanders early in the week, waters kept rising in eastern areas around Limburg and Liege. Several neighborhoods have had to be evacuated as cellars flooded and streets were submerged in overflowing creeks and rivers.
One major train line linking eastern Limburg to the capital had to be temporarily suspended early Thursday. No deaths or injuries have been reported so far in Belgium. More rain is expected later.

Romania

Authorities say that two people have died and 200 people have been evacuated from their homes as floods swept parts of eastern Romania.
The interior ministry said 7,000 firefighters, police and others had been dispatched overnight Friday to help in flood rescue efforts.
The ministry said in a statement that a man died after a torrent of water knocked him off his bicycle in the eastern village of Ruginesti. In Bacau county, in eastern Romania, another man was found drowned.