Paris is under a flood alert as rising water from the river Seine causes travel headaches throughout the popular tourist destination.
The city's deputy mayor, Colombe Brossel, reported the river's water level reached 16 feet Tuesday and is forecasted to peak around 19.5 feet by Saturday, prompting the second-most severe alert in an "orange" emergency level, according to The Washington Post.
The flooding is the result of unusually heavy rainfall accumulations on the upper basin of the Seine.
According to the official website of Paris' Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), roads along the city's riverbanks have been closed to pedestrians.
Several roads are also inaccessible to cars and motorcycles. Notable closures include the Voie Georges Pompidou between the Garigliano and Bir-Hakeim bridges, the road under the Pont National and the Tuileries underpass.
Multiple stations on the RER C urban rail line are also closed. The CVB reported the Saint-Michel Notre Dame, Musée d'Orsay, Invalides, Champ de Mars, Avenue du Président Kennedy and Boulainvilliers stations will be closed until at least Friday.
The Batobus river shuttle service has also been suspended.
Meanwhile, several tour agencies have been forced to cancel cruises. Vedettes du Pont Neuf and Vedettes de Paris have canceled cruises until Thursday.
Sightseeing and dining cruises operated by Bateaux Parisiens and Bateaux Mouches have also been canceled until further notice.
The Louvre announced Wednesday the lower level of the Department of Islamic Arts will be closed until Sunday under the museum's Flood Risk Prevention Plan because the river's water levels have reached 16.8 feet.
The Louvre said other precautionary measures have been taken and that an emergency response team continues to monitor the situation in real time. As part of the Flood Risk Prevention Plan, museum officials are also preparing to relocate reserve collections comprising 152,000 works to Liévin in northern France, where a new facility is currently under construction.
The river Seine flooded to a level of nearly 20 feet as recently as June 2016, prompting similar travel disruptions and causing the Louvre to remain closed for four days.
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