Winter weather has been pretty extreme just about everywhere this year. Western Europe has had tons of rain and as such, a lot of flooding. Angers has experienced flooding conditions that apparently rival the floods of 1995. In the picture above, the water you see is covering a street which has been impassable for 2-3 weeks now. There are houses there that have water in them for all that time and it was a couple of feet higher at its worst. Fortunately, most buildings are made of stone so the damage is less awful than it would be in houses made of wood and sheetrock.
Below, these boats are stranded as the entrance to the walkway to the left has been underwater; it’s just to the right of the flooded street above. Normally, the walkway slants down pretty significantly to get to this dock. There is a paved path along the river near the shore under ~15 vertical feet of water.
The thing I find remarkable is that people are just going along and living their lives. It was not a surprise that this would happen and people did prepare to evacuate their homes. City infrastructure is strong here and both warnings and alternate places to go were available. Many downtown streets were closed and some still are. The city placed planks on cinder blocks to help people navigate shallowly flooded sidewalks. The regional transit network was heavily impacted with closures on all three tram lines and many bus lines.
But life has gone on, not much different than usual. Fortunately, it has been a school vacation break so many people are on vacation elsewhere. Everyone else has made the best of it, taking alternative foot and transit routes, peacefully co-existing on extra full public transit where it’s still running. Absolutely no one is raiding the stores, buying all the toilet paper, milk, and bread. There is no chaos, just the knowledge that this too shall pass soon and Angers will be just fine.
City workers and neighbors are helping clean up the remains of the flooding as the water slowly recedes, people are back to frequenting their local businesses, and the transit system is mostly back to normal now.
Spring is starting to show up with young blossoms (even on submerged trees like this), daffodils, and new leaves on the trees around town. We had sunshine and 65-70 degree days three times this week!
We’re heading for northern Italy in a few days to spend time in three towns now that the Olympics and the school vacations are done: Turin, Bergamo, and Verona. We hope for nice weather and few crowds as we explore and enjoy the food, culture, people, history, and architecture.