Hollande to declare state of natural catastrophe in flooded parts of France

French President Francois Hollande announced on Thursday that he would declare a state of natural catastrophe in flood-hit areas, after at least nine people were killed in floods in his country and Germany.

The floods have wreaked havoc in Germany and France, trapping people in their homes and forcing rescuers to row lifeboats down streets turned into muddy rivers.

In Paris, officials were putting up emergency flood barriers on Thursday along the swollen river Seine after days of torrential rain.
Louvre closed

The Louvre museum in flood-hit Paris said it would close on Friday to evacuate artworks held in its underground reserves as the River Seine began to burst its banks.

The riverside museum -- the most visited in the world, home to everything from the Mona Lisa to priceless Egyptian artifacts, took the radical action after days of torrential rain in the French capital.

The Musee d'Orsay, which faces the Louvre on the opposite bank of the river, closed early on Thursday to put its own "protection plan" into place.
Deaths in Germany

The force of the water swept away the entire stock of a sawmill in the German town of Simbach am Inn, leaving huge stacks of splintered wood blocking the streets of the devastated town.

On one street, passers-by were greeted by the surreal sight of a car parked vertically against the wall of a house, pushed there by the floodwaters. Many other vehicles lay flipped over in roads blanketed by mud...
 [i24news.tv by AFP]
2/6/16
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Related:

• Paris museums on alert as Seine rises after torrential rain...

• Europe floods: Natural disaster to be declared in France... 

• Flooding kills at least five people in Germany