It’s a Wednesday afternoon in August, after what has so far been a particularly rainy summer, and there is water rising through the floor of the Papeterie Saint-Armand.
It’s not a new problem. The floor is usually wet in the back room, where a machine called the beater — a massive metal tub with an imposing flywheel — sits near piles of rags, the raw ingredients used to make high-quality paper.
But today, a fuse has blown and the chihuahua-sized sump pump that normally keeps the rising floodwaters at bay has gone silent.
Soon the water will reach the rags, piles of jute,
