Nearly half of the trees of the forests of Boulogne and Vincennes, the two most important forests in urban Paris, were destroyed by Sunday's Storm which was described as "a disaster and devastation."

"We need about three years to clean up these trees. As for the reconstruction of our green heritage, it will need decades. So many trees standing for hundreds of years were touched," a government official said Monday.

About 140,000 trees, many of which are tens of meters high and several meters wide in girth, were torn up or pulled down by the stormy wind in Boulogne and Vincennes.

Meanwhile, about 2,000 trees out of a total of 35,000 in the public parks and gardens in urban Paris were torn up, while 500 trees along the streets and 1,000 in the cemeteries were destroyed, said the officials.

A botanical center in Rungis outside Paris, where the city of Paris produces three million trees of decoration each year, was also severely damaged with its storehouses devastated.

One race horse in the Vincennes was killed and another injured by a collapsing house on Sunday.

Paris looks desolate and some parts of the city devastated with fallen trees seen everywhere.

The municipal services are doing their best to clean up some important tourists' sites such as Tower Eiffel and Champs-Elysees in expectation of a celebration for the year 2000.

But the mood of Parisians for celebrating the arrival of the new millennium is more than darkened by Sunday's storm attack. (Xinhua)