The cost of France’s worst flooding in decades could reach an estimated €2 billion ($2.2 billion). French insurance companies are expecting to have to pay out at least hundreds of millions of euros.
Industry representatives were meeting with government ministers on Monday to discuss the damage, Euronews reported.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has announced an emergency fund for victims. He was preparing to attend a crisis meeting with members of his cabinet.
Officials say they don’t expect water levels to return to normal for at least a week. Some regions remain on orange alert, one notch down from the highest level.
The River Seine in Paris has stabilized. Officials say the waters are slowly receding after reaching a 34-year high of just over six meters above their normal level.
Attractions that had to close are beginning to reopen. The Grand Palais is welcoming back tourists.
The Louvre is planning to open its doors on Wednesday. Museum workers stacked valuable statues and artworks into dozens of boxes marked fragile before the weekend.
The swollen Seine receded on Sunday, but between flood damages, strikes and terror fears, France was firmly stuck in the doldrums just five days before the Euro football tournament.
Thick grey clouds hung over Paris as the muddy Seine slowly inched back from a three-decade high that saw it burst its banks in places, forcing the Louvre and Orsay museums to shut their doors to evacuate priceless works.
But while crowds thronged to photograph the river—Paris’s star attraction this weekend—residents in nearby towns picked through their devastated homes, with insurers estimating damages. Several towns remained on alert after the floods left four people dead in the Paris region this week, and over 11,000 homes were without electricity.
