After the Lourdes Floods

The Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes struggled to return to its usual rhythm of prayers and pilgrimages on Tuesday after weekend flash floods inundated the site and caused damages of about two million euros ($2.6 million).

Small groups of pilgrims visited the hillside grotto where the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to a peasant girl in 1858 after workers cleared away a thick carpet of mud the nearby Gave river deposited when it overflowed its banks on Saturday.