04 June 2016

A difficult weekend for many in the Cher Valley

The Loire Valley flooding crisis is far from over. I didn't go out yesterday — we are all being asked to stay home if we can. The photos here are some more that I took Thursday afternoon.

The Cher at Saint-Aignan looks more like a lake than a river right now.

My planned trip to Paris by train tomorrow has had to be canceled. With the current strikes affecting train schedules and the flooding in areas from here all the way to Paris, it wouldn't be wise to try to make the trip. It talked to CHM about it on the phone yesterday, and he thought it better to postpone for now.

The Sur le Pont restaurant's kitchen and outdoor seating area are at river level and are obviously flooded.

Evidently, flooding along the Cher River, from east of Saint-Aignan all the way to Tours, 40 miles west, will continue all through the weekend. Below is a translation of an article I read in the regional newspaper, La Nouvelle République, this morning.

These houses at the foot of the château in Saint-Aignan are protected from rising waters by a stone wall.
In the Cher Valley, the biggest problems are yet to come. The river crested at Vierzon [35 miles east of Saint-Aignan] on Friday afternoon. It will take another 24 hours for the crest to reach Montrichard [10 miles west of Saint-Aignan], and 48 hours for it to travel from Vierzon to Tours [130 kilometers, or 80 miles, in all].

It probably wasn't a great idea to build a house with a basement-level garage like this.

Conditions will continue to deteriorate all along the river and will not soon improve because the crest is a kind of "plateau" and the water level will stay high for two or three more days. "In the Cher Valley, conditions won't get back to normal before Tuesday," warn authorities in Blois, the administrative capital of the Loir-et-Cher "department" [county]. People are being asked to limit their travels to a strict minimum, to respect all warnings, and to exercise great care.
The east-west A85 autoroute crosses the Cher valley on a long viaduct. Normally these are fields, not water.

The article also says that the A10 autoroute remains closed to traffic between Orléans and Paris, but is open from Orléans to Blois and on to Tours, apparently. Here's a link to the full article about the situation, in French.

Here's one of the lock-keeper's houses on the Cher across from the village of Mareuil. It and the fields on both sides of the river are flooded.

And here's a link to an accompanying article about the disastrous effects the flooding is having on on agriculture in the area. Many farm animals have drowned, spring crops have been destroyed, and seeds sown for the summer and fall harvests have been washed away all along the Cher river valley.

This looks like a lake but it's actually a field along the river that's planted in corn in summertime.

I do have to go out this morning. I'm going to SuperU, which like our house is up on high ground, but getting there means driving down into the river valley. If the gravel road through the vineyard hadn't been so damaged by the heavy rains, with gullies and ruts everywhere, I could go that way, but today I don't want to risk it.

17 comments:

  1. Yes, I think it was a wise decision to postpone your trip to Paris until weather and strikes conditions improve.

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    1. Sorry to read that your trip to the Loire Valley has been postponed. Hope you'll find an occasion to travel later this summer. Keep safe and dry in Paris! Martine

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  2. A flood like this is terrible for homeowners who bought houses built on the flood plain.... But I have little sympathy for the agriculturalists....
    They are part of the reason that water reaches the rivers so fast... A farmer would use the land for grazing or hay/silage crops....but agriculturalists are lazy farmers. They have ploughed up those meadows and now sow crops in neat rows with bare soil in between, right up to the river's edge....the "sponge" has been lost and their soil collects no water....in addition, the soil that washes off the fields ends up loading the water and increasing its force.
    Additionally, the "lazy farmers" are using ever larger, heavier machinery....five times the size of postwar tractors...probably the same weightwise....progress is actually harming the soil structure...compacting it...yes, they plough, but they are compacting it much further down than the plough reaches....again destroying the ability for the soil to hold this water and let it out slowly....we "benefit" in cheaper food....but the costs are hidden until heavy rain falls!!
    As it stands it is a lose-lose situation!!

    But I am very glad for you that your gully over the kitchen held....I think that it has been tested to the extreme....your roofer is a treasure, invite him over for a meal and some wine!! And send him home with a bottle,to two!!

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    1. What a terme savant — "agriculturists" — where did you get that?

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    2. The BIG farms in the UK either coined the term "agriculturalist", or lifted it from elsewhere, to differentiate their "wonderful, crop-oriented, no animal approach" from the small scale ordinary farmer who mixes both cattle and cereal/arable crops....
      You need degrees to be "agriculturalists"....degrees in economics and chemistry!!
      As you might conclude from my writing....I am no fan of them...unlike real farmers, they do not really need to have any knowledge of their land....they just need to know what is "hot on the market" and where to source the seed, the fertilizer and the "death to everything else" chemicals....
      Vignerons are REAL farmers....they have to know their land and their vines....most mixed farmers and almost all bio concerns are real farmers...but these new cattle ranches of 500 to a 1000 head or more...why, they are just agriculturalists!!

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  3. Fearful of strikes, I rescheduled my trip to arrive a week early and it looks like I was lucky. Now even the A10 is closed. I drove through the rain last Sunday and the trip down to the Charente took much longer because of it.

    Incredible images.

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    1. A week or two ago, I saw reports about damaging hailstorms around Jarnac. I wonder if you see evidence of that.

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    2. There were trees felled from the storm and some vinyards had losses due to the hail.

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  4. All this flooding has come at the worst time for farmers. I remember seeing the effects of drought in 2004 which was also sad. I hope you will get to Paris next weekend.

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  5. I have panic attacks when there is flooding anywhere close by. I worry for you and everyone who is in the path of worse flooding to come ... I am so very sorry .. all the animals :(

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  6. This is so terrible! Thanks for keeping us informed. Of course, it is only getting passing mention on the news around here, but NPR and PBS news are giving it more coverage.

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  7. The photo of the water level at Sur le Pont is shocking, especially beacause you posted a picture of it under normal conditions in the past. I am hoping you are spared any problems from this, and wishing for a quick resolution for all.

    Our news said the Seine is 20 feet above normal.

    Per PRI News: "Around the villages of Irancy and of Chablis, one of the most celebrated wine-producing village in France, some wine-makers say they simply won’t be able to produce wine at all in 2016..."

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    1. Thanks, I hadn't heard about Chablis and Irancy. I'll have to look that up. Irancy especially is at the bottom of a big natural "amphitheatre" and I could see how flooding there could be disastrous. The vineyard are on steep hillsides and a lot of mud and rock could wash down in heavy rain.

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  8. Keep safe Ken. Carol and Michael are living on their own little island.

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    1. I haven't been in touch with C and M. I hope they didn't get water inside their house.

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  9. stay on high ground, ken and walt. that looks horrible.

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