The North Sea Floods of 1953

Over half of the Netherlands lies below sea level. Dikes have been built to protect large areas of land from the sea.

On this date in 1953, the Netherlands experienced its worst flood disaster in five centuries as a furious storm attacked the North Dutch Coast, with the greatest surge on record for the North Sea.
Water levels along the coast rose through the night of the 31st and surged over dikes just after midnight on the 1st.

Over fifty dikes failed. Over one million acres of land was underwater as the flood reclaimed much of the land the dikes protected. Forty thousand homes were destroyed. One hundred and thirty three villages were flooded.

The Dutch Surge Warning Service and UK Met Office did predict dangerously high water levels hours in advance of the storm. But high winds knocked down power and phone lines and Radio stations went off the air, complicating the warning process. Church bells had to be pressed into service to sound the alarm.

Over 1,800 people died. Damage was totaled at over $500 million.

The storm driven surge was aided by a spring tide in which the sun, moon and earth are aligned, producing tides that are higher than normal.

After the disaster, the government created an ambitious program called the Deltaworks to ensure that history would not repeat itself. Starting in 1953, a series of dams, dikes and floodgates was built to protect the Netherlands from North Sea floods.

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