Gody's Elbows

The eyes of all Paris were on Andre Louis Gody, a 17-foot Zouave who stands heroically in effigy beneath the Pont de 1'Alma, where Emperor Napoleon III put him nearly 100 years ago to honor a victory in the Crimea. When the river waters swirl around Gody's calves, Parisians know that the Seine is in flood. Last week the water reached well above Gody's elbows. As the floodwaters poured down into the city, raising the river crest to nearly seven meters above normal, all of Paris' quais were engulfed. The priceless works on the ground floor of the

Louvre were taken upstairs to safety, three companies of firemen were kept busy pumping water out of the basement of ancient Notre-Dame, and police closed off the famed Pont des Invalides for fear its waterlogged arches might collapse. In the suburbs, thousands were evacuated from their homes. In Paris' 227 Roman Catholic churches, special prayers were said for favorable weather.

Swollen like the Seine on the overflow of unseasonable rains and winter thaws, other European rivers as well were on the rampage. At Bonn, Germany's normally sedate Rhine River was twice its usual girth, marooning U.S. High Commissioner Conant in his home. Whooping with glee, Rhineland children cruised their family basements in washtubs, while resigned elders watched the water level, carefully marked on the stained walls of riverside inns, climb higher than it had since 1926.

Floodwaters on an Autobahn caused a freak chain-reaction smash-up involving 69 cars, trucks and motorcycles.

Wind-whipped blizzards added to the confusion. All over Britain, snow, freeze-ups, floods and gale winds appeared in full fury. The freak week began with the biggest, blackest cloud of smog within London's memory, suddenly enveloping the nation's noontime capital in midnight darkness. Pedestrians scurried for shelter, and one bearded old prophet paraded in front of Croydon Town Hall crying aloud, "The end of the world has come." The thickest snows in eight years covered all British counties except Cornwall, which had instead the worst floods of half a century. The National Automobile Association officially reported "the worst mixture of terrible road conditions we can remember." The Royal Navy dispatched its 13,000-ton aircraft carrier Glory to serve as a base of helicopter operations to relieve snowbound Scottish crofters in the north.

In all of Britain only a single herd of cows seemed to take any joy in the week's weather. They were watered with an emergency ration delivered in old whisky barrels from a local distillery.

They seemed to like the stuff.

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