The flood of 1953 in Zeeland

The disaster was from 31 of January to the 1 of February. There was already for 24 hours a heavy storm from the North West, the most dangerous direction for our country. The seawater was very high that night and it was blown into the estuaries of Zeeland. It was a bit heavy, but they were thinking it was normal because the sea level was always higher in that time of the year. But when everybody was sleeping the dikes broke. The water came into the polders and dike after dike broke. The islands Duivenland, Goeree Overvlakkee, Tholen, Biesbosch en St. Philipsland were completely inundated. The islands Voorne Putten and the Hoekse Waarde were almost completely flooded. South Beveland and Walcheren were only partly flooded. More than 1800 people drowned in the ice cold water. In total 49.000 houses and farms were destroyed. Between the 100.000 and the 110.000 people had to be evacuated. That people had to stay somewhere else e.g. in schools and churches. Some babies were born that night, but because people had to sleep in schools babies were born there. For the farmers it was bad too as it lasted two years before anything could grow again on the salty fields. Now we told about the humans, but 201.000 animals died too. We hope it will never happen again, it sounds so terrible…..
Iris and Richelle T1B