How many marvelous pictures are there of the Loire River, often as a calm backdrop to towns and chateaux along the banks. I've taken some myself, although I'd say their quality has mostly to do with the memories they bring back.
However calm the river may appear, recent floods in northeastern France along the Seine and Aube rivers must have reminded people living nearby that the Loire can do the same. And a recent report from a regional public agency would have reinforced that reminder. The report, from the Center Region's Direction régionale de l'environnement, de l'aménagement et du logement (DREAL) dealt with the condition of levees (example below) along the Loire and the risks in the event of 100-year flood conditions. La Nouvelle République (Tours) reports that it's unlikely such a flood would overflow the tops of levees up stream from Tours. But, it reported, various forces, natural and man-made, may have weakened the earthen barriers in certain places, creating risk of a breach. 
The probability of such a failure may be relatively low, but the consequences would be catastrophic; reportedly more than 100,000 people would need to be evacuated from areas around Tours (about 300,000 in the metropolitan area). The point of the report was, in part, to remind local officials of the need for emergency evacuation plans, but also to reassure them that levee repair work was on-going. In contrast, nothing was said, at least in this forum, about what might be done to reduce the need for evacuations by limiting development in flood-prone areas. Perhaps that's for another day.
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