20 stycznia 1910 - Powódź w Paryżu!

LOGOWANIE

Wielka Powódź w Paryżu miała miejsce w Paryżu w dniach od 20 stycznia do 18 lutego 1910 roku. W wyniku obfitych opadów w ciągu tego miesiąca woda z Sekwany zalała centrum Paryża. Dworzec kolejowy, Gare d'Orsay znalazł się pod wodą, fundamenty Luwru również zostały dotknięte falą powodziową. Na wielu ulicach w centrum miasta rozporządzono edykt o możliwości używania łodzi a na pozostałych ulicach służby miejskie rozstawiły kładki dla pieszych.

W wyniku powodzi zniszczeniu uległo 20 000 domów, ponad 200 000 paryżan poniosło szkody. Straty wywołane powodzią zostały oficjalnie ustalone na ponad 400 milionów franków co jest równowartością ponad 1,5 miliarda dolarów dziś.

Maksymalny poziom wody w krytycznej fazie powodzi wynosił 8,62 metra.

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Na stulecie powodzi 1910 powstała książka pt. "Paris Under Water: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910" autorstwa Jeffrey'a H. Jacksona.

Opis książki i kilka uwag o książce:

"Paris Under Water: How The City of Light Survived The Great Flood of 1910" by historian Jeffrey H. Jackson is the first historical narrative nonfiction work in English to tell the story of the flood in the world's major urban centers and how it coped with its worst natural disaster in more than 250 years.

Over three years in the works, the book is based on a wealth of original archival material, including municipal documents, unpublished correspondence, newspaper accounts, and private journals, much of which have never been used before, as well as the trove of photos from widely-circulated postcards.

Jackson also had access to the diary and official daily logs kept by the chief of police, who provided crucial leadership during the crisis. These sources bring to life the human story of this catastrophe. Jackson takes us vicariously through the experience of the city and its inhabitants as they survived the dangerous rising water. The flooded Seine frames the story, but Jackson personalizes it with vignettes of a range of residents, from stranded families, municipal officials, and humble workers to Red Cross rescue teams, journalists, artists, government workers, and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Further, he argues that the flood revealed a sense of community across the city that many believed had been lost and helped pave the way for national unity in the coming conflict of World War I.

"It’s hard to imagine a more thoroughly researched history of the Paris, France, flood of 1910 than 'Paris Under Water' by Jeffrey H. Jackson. With the national debate roaring on whether post-Katrina New Orleans should be rebuilt, Paris Under Wateroffers the definitive answer of yes. A truly first-rate book." - Douglas Brinkley, author of "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Gulf Coast"

"Jeffrey Jackson’s meticulous account of the great Paris flood is harrowing history told in gripping detail but also a stark warning as waters rise everywhere." - Mort Rosenblum, author of "Secret Life of the Seine and Chocolate"

"'Paris Under Water' is a riveting account of a natural catastrophe that struck Paris in 1910. Going far beyond the boundaries of environmental or urban history, it draws on an exceptionally wide array of sources to offer the reader a meticulous, yet rich and personal, reconstruction of what the great flood felt like to contemporaries, what it revealed about social tensions and solidarities, and what it signified on a broader historical scale. Jackson has succeeded masterfully in telling a fascinating story in a way that any reader will find utterly irresistible, while applying insightful and erudite scholarly analysis in a way that sheds light on a great city’s social, economic, and cultural life. A tour de force of scholarship and brilliantly creative craftsmanship." - Michael D. Bess, author of "Choices Under Fire: Moral Dimensions of World War II"

"Before New Orleans, there was Paris. The Great Paris Flood of 1910, which paralyzed the world’s most modern city and caused over a billion euros (by today’s standards) worth of damage, provides a fascinating study of physical and social devastation and human survival. Jackson blends the vivid details of the flood - exploding sewer covers, disintegrating streets - with the wider historical context, from the Commune of 1871 to World War I, and the psychology of disaster. Modernization itself contributed to Paris’s destruction. But, as Jackson concludes, in the end Paris survived the flood because it was a functioning human community, not because it was a modern metropolis. Any student of history or lover of Paris will want to read this book." - Sarah Smith, "The Knowledge of Water, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year"

"Fascinating work, important story, beautifully told. Jackson tells us about a little-known flood of a well-known city, Paris. He weaves seamlessly together the political and cultural significance of the flood, all while engaging the reader with stories about what the flood meant for everyday life. A fine achievement." - Lee Clarke, author of "Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination"

"Narratives of natural disasters often show swift and all-consuming devastation, but PARIS 'Paris Under Water' is a story of waters rising. Set against the backdrop of the world’s most beautiful city, the Seine itself is at the center of the story from its role in making Paris a modern city to the day in 1910 when Parisians stood on its banks and watched it climb several feet a day, carrying debris from flooded towns in the countryside. Through Jackson’s deft storytelling and first-hand accounts, we see the terror of watching a disaster slowly, methodically drown a city and a community’s fight to survive it." - Molly Caldwell Crosby, "An American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History"

"Stories about Paris have left us with a rich profile of a city at the vanguard of political action and cultural life. Yet Jeffrey H. Jackson’s new book muddies these familiar waters. His gripping account of the 1910 flood recounts the highs and the lows of what happened when water 'shorted out' the city of light. With a knack for the diversity of human response to disaster and the historian’s eye for the telling detail, Jackson draws our attention to how nature interacts with our greatest of human-wrought environments: the metropolis. This book not only is an important tale, worthy of being told but it also will open the door to reconsiderations of the interaction of technology and the environment in ways that are vitally relevant today." - Vanessa R. Schwartz, "It’s So French: Hollywood, Paris, and the Making of Cosmopolitan Film Culture"

“A spirited look at the Parisian move into 'Syst'me D'-crisis mode.” - Kirkus, "An engrossing narrative" - Library Journal

“Enlivened by period photographs of a flooded Paris, this is a capable, well-researched history of a modern city’s battle with nature” - Publishers Weekly