50 years ago today: Floods

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Lest we forget...... In January 31/Feburary 1 1953 a combination of gale force winds, a deep depression and a spring tide caused a tremendous volume of water to be driven southwards into the North Sea between England and the Netherlands. In England 300 people drowned. In my adopted country the dykes gave way flooding large parts of Zeeland and South Holland. Over 1,800 people lost their lives.

http://www.jobvdsande.com/projects/deltawerken/media/img/ramp/breedond.jpg

http://www.jobvdsande.com/projects/deltawerken/media/img/ramp/boulevar.jpg

http://home-1.concepts.nl/~oeveren/rampbos1.jpg

― stevo (stevo), Saturday, 1 February 2003 07:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

There was great documentary on Radio 4 last week about this. The stories about the force and suddenness of these floods are something to here. People driven into their attics in a matter of minutes and having to break through their rooves to escape.

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 1 February 2003 11:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

when i wz little an aged dutch professor sent me a big dutch text book about this flood, complete with an english-to-dutch dictionary (ie the unhelpful way round)

he had given a lecture where my dad worked and stayed the weekend with my parents: he made a big thing of how he'd specially made sure the dictionary was the useful direction, but he wz talking rubbish in fact

however the photos in it were tremendous, kind of bleak and gareth-like

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 1 February 2003 13:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Do you mean they looked like Gareth's photos, or like Gareth? I hope it's the latter.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 1 February 2003 14:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

My dad lived in Eastern England, in one of the flooded towns. Fortunately, his family's house was *just* far enough from the beach to not be reached by the floods.

(actually, thinking about it, he must have been just an ickle 3-month-old at the time)

― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 1 February 2003 15:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

Not wanting to be argumentative, but oddly we don't have a part of England described as Eastern England, or the East or East of England or whatever. From the bottom up, it goes: the South East; East Anglia; the North East. Maybe those of us not from the South-East might go for Yorkshire before getting to the North East proper. We do have a West of England - I guess North of Bristol, south of Birmingham or so.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 1 February 2003 15:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's always a bit vague where the North East begins. My dad grew up in Cleethorpes, which is probably in the North East and definitely not in East Anglia; it's in Lincolnshire, which is usually considered part of the East Midlands.

― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 1 February 2003 16:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

We do have a part of England called the east of England. Broadly it describes england from the Thames to the Humber, broadly Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. At least thats what it brings in my mind when I see it written.

I'd say the North East begins where Yorkshire ends, its northumberland and County Durham (Teeside and Tyneside in there as well but you know what I mean).

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 1 February 2003 17:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

eleven years pass...

http://i.imgur.com/DYY455v.jpg

― Hayat Boumkattiene (nakhchivan), Thursday, 15 January 2015 23:36 (nine years ago) link

― Mistah FAAB (sarahell), Thursday, 15 January 2015 23:37 (nine years ago) link

http://www.puppykennel.nl/upload/files/stock/1420479165/1420479165.jpg

― Mistah FAAB (sarahell), Thursday, 15 January 2015 23:47 (nine years ago) link

Can't imagine rescuing those would have been a priority when dykes gave way flooding large parts of Zeeland and South Holland

― Hayat Boumkattiene (nakhchivan), Thursday, 15 January 2015 23:50 (nine years ago) link

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