- Floods in the Netherlands
This is a chronological list of floods that have occurred in the Netherlands, till 1500 most parts of the Netherlands were in
Frisia .
*838 December 26: A large part of the northwest of theNetherlands (in that time the land belonged toFrisia - now calledFriesland ) was flooded by a storm. Lack of good dikes was an important cause of this flood disaster. BishopPrudentius of Troyes describes this flood; he said there were 2437 victims. This flood is also described in the "Annales Xantenses ".
*1014 September 28: for the first time the partially closed coast line of theNetherlands was breached.Walcheren suffered a particularly large amount of damage. It took years before people managed to get their lives back on track. The chronicle of theQuedlinburg abbey inSaxony reports that thousands of people died.
*1024 November 2: flood mentioned in Annales Blandiniensis (Ghent), probably only affecting the Flemish coast and in particular the region of theYser mouth.
*1134: TheZwin opens as a channel connectingBruges with the North Sea.
*1163: TheNetherlands experienced several floods this year. This caused dike breaches along theMaas . As a result the mouth of the Oude Rijn atKatwijk , which was already almost entirely silted up, was entirely closed by sediment carried around by the flood.
*1170: First All Saints' flood ("Allerheiligenvloed"). Large parts of the north of theNetherlands and theZuiderzee region were inundated. A channel from theNorth Sea was opened into the fresh water Lake Flavo (Almere lake), and it became the salt waterZuiderzee . This flood marked the beginning and spread of theNorth Sea ,Zuiderzee andWaddenzee . Two factors causing this sea enlargement were important: first was the sea area increase, second the presence of largepeat areas, which were easily washed away.
*1196:St. Nicholas' Flood ("Sint-Nicolaasvloed"). Large parts of the north of theNetherlands and theZuiderzee region were inundated. Where the storm flood of 1170 made a beginning, this storm worsened it, washing away largepeat areas. The result of this storm was destruction of peat areas in West Friesland and enlarging theWaddenzee and theAlmere whch became theZuiderzee .
*1212:Noord-Holland suffered a large flood with approximately 60,000 victims.
*1214: Storm flood affecting all parts of the Netherlands. Much erosion ofpeat areas.
*1219 January 16: St. Marcellus' Flood ("Sint-Marcellusvloed"). Large parts of the north of theNetherlands and theZuiderzee region were inundated, killing an estimated 36000 people. This was the 4th large flood in 50 years. This had enormous consequences on the development of the two large inner seas in theNetherlands , theZuiderzee and theWaddenzee .
*1248 20 November, 28 December, and 4 February 1249: The coastal dunes were breached (likely atCallantsoog ), flooding parts of North Holland. Also flooding occurred in Friesland and Groningen.
*1277: A flood drowned theReiderland : see Drowned villages in Groningen province.
*1280: Large parts of the north of theNetherlands were inundated. This flood created theLauwerszee .
*1282: A storm broke through the coastaldune s aroundTexel and let sea water flood into what is now theWaddenzee andIJsselmeer .
*1287 December 14:St. Lucia's flood .
*1362:Grote Mandrenke strikes in January, causing the "Great Drowning of Men." Hurricane-force winds drove enormous waves atop an incrediblestorm surge that carved a huge inland sea into the Netherlands, killing at least 25,000 inhabitants. The salt sea swallowed sixty parishes in the Danish diocese ofSlesvig . This storm also demolished much infrastructure in England.
*1404: First St. Elizabeth's Flood. SeeSt. Elizabeth's flood (1404) .
*1421 November 18: Second St. Elisabeth's Flood. SeeSt. Elizabeth's flood (1421) .
*1530:St. Felix's Flood ("Sint-Felixvloed").
*1570 November 1: Second All Saints' flood ("Allerheiligenvloed").
*1675: This affected mainly the north of theNetherlands . It flooded part ofTerschelling ; the surroundings ofStavoren andHindeloopen ; theMastenbroek byKampen ; the area betweenSchagen andDen Helder ;Noord-Holland east ofAlkmaar ; the surroundings ofAmsterdam ; a very large area around theHaarlemmermeer .
*1703 December 7 to 9 (or according to the old English calendar which still applied in 1703, 27 November):Great Storm of 1703 . This storm caused a flood killing thousands of victims. There are no wind measurements available, but a wealth of reports and diaries make it clear that this storm was extremely serious. The storm reached its peak in the night and led to enormous damage and numerous dike breaches. It was heaviest in an area of approximately 500 kilometres wide inWales , the middle and south ofUnited Kingdom , theNorth Sea area, theLow Countries , and the north ofGermany . At many places there was talk of a high storm surge.Seamen in theUnited Kingdom reportedtornado es. Other sources wrote about a terrible storm and these well agree with each other. The air was full oflightning . The English journalist and writerDaniel Defoe (the writer ofRobinson Crusoe ) wrote concerning the "most terrible storm which the world ever saw". The storm was according to Defoe so dreadful that there was no pen to describe it. There had already been a storm for two weeks, but this was the peak. The south ofFriesland was flooded from several dike breaches. AZeeland ish captain wrote in a letter to the admiralty ofZeeland that the storm could not be withstood. The Dutch fleet was hit hard, but the British fleet bore the heaviest blows. Dozens of war ships sailed to the English coasts where thousands of victims died. Meteorologists have tried to reconstruct the chart of this storm. AboveScandinavia the air pressure was high at the beginning of December 1703, but in theBay of Biscay south west of theUnited Kingdom there were two depressions. The first depression went up the North Sea, the second went toScotland . The venom, however, was in a new block which appeared atIreland . This increasingly drew in strong activity around the middle and from Britain further to the east. The storm blew on the south side of the depression where the south of Britain had ahurricane , wind strength 12. Thebarometer s plummeted dramatically: according to calculations the air pressure must have decreased to 950 millibars, a rare low for Britain. A powerful anticyclone which came immediately ensured enormous air pressure differences, as a result of which it blew terribly this way.
*1717 December 24/25 night: Christmas flood ("Kerstvloed"): seeChristmas flood 1717 .
*1820 January 23: This flood inundated large parts of theAlblasserwaard , after a number of dike breaches. Also the lock between theLinge and the canal fromSteenenhoek toGorinchem succumbed on 26 January during the events of this calamity. An area of approximately 1300 km² came under water during this calamity.
*1825 February 3 to 5: The provinces of Groningen,Friesland andOverijssel were flooded through serious dike breaks, as a result of which more than 800 people lost their lives. At17 February 1825 the government set up a relief commission to provide government assistance for the flood disaster. Accounts of this commission are kept in the national archives inDen Haag . In memory of this flood, the book "Gedenkboek van Neerlands watersnood in februari 1825" ("Memorial Book of the Dutch Flood Disaster of February 1825") was published.
*1836: Twohurricane -driven floods by theHaarlemmermeer lake: One in November reached the gates ofAmsterdam . One on Christmas Day floodedLeyden . As a result, in May 1840 men started to drain and reclaim theHaarlemmermeer .
*1916 January 13 and 14: Flood disaster around theZuiderzee . At dozens of places the dikes broke. Afterwards work started on theZuiderzeewerken and the establishment of the storm flood service.
*1953 January 31/February 1 night: SeeNorth Sea flood of 1953 .ee also
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Flood control in the Netherlands External links
*http://www.orisant.com/verdronken/lijst.htm (in Dutch)
*http://www.mrjumbo.com/contents/ostfriesland/maps/wasserflutt.html Christmas day flood 1717 map
*http://www.deltawerken.com/The-flood-of-1953/89.html The Flood of 1953 in the Netherlands
*http://www.safecoast.org Knowledge exchange on coastal flooding and climate change in the North Sea region
* [http://www.livius.org/opinion/opinion0008.html Rome's Greatest Defeat, A Review - All Saints' Flood of 1170] . File retrieved March 11, 2007.
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