North Sea flood of 1953

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Over the northern and western parts of the North Sea, a strong gale rages between northwest and west. The storm field is extending further. It is expected that the storm will continue for the whole night, and given this fact, this afternoon at 5.30pm the areas of Rotterdam, Willemstad and Bergen op Zoom have been warned for dangerous high water.

"Hilversum Radio broadcast, Saturday January 31, 6.15pm", January 31, 1953 and 9/11: Living with risk (2019) [20]

Another warning was broadcast shortly before midnight on 31 January 1953, followed by the Wilhelmus, after which broadcasts ceased for the evening, as was standard in the Netherlands at the time. [21] As a result, the warnings of the KNMI did not penetrate the flood-threatened area in time. People were unable to prepare for the impending flood. The disaster struck on a Saturday night, and hence many government and emergency offices in the affected area were not staffed.

As telephone and telegraph networks were disrupted by flood damage, amateur radio operators went into the affected areas with their equipment to form a voluntary emergency radio network. These radio amateurs provided radio communications for 10 days and nights, and were the only people able to maintain contact from affected areas with the outside world. [22]

Resulting damage

Extent of flooding in the Netherlands North Sea flood of 1953.png
Extent of flooding in the Netherlands

The Zeeland dykes were breached in 67 locations. [19] Large parts of South Holland, Zeeland and North Brabant were inundated. In North Holland only one polder was flooded. The most extensive flooding occurred on the islands of Schouwen-Duiveland, Tholen, Sint Philipsland, Goeree-Overflakkee, the Hoeksche Waard, Voorne-Putten and Alblasserwaard. Parts of the islands of Zuid-Beveland, Noord-Beveland, IJsselmonde, Pernis, Rozenburg, Walcheren and Land van Altena were flooded, as well as parts of the areas around Willemstad, Nieuw-Vossemeer and parts of Zeelandic Flanders.

The highest death tolls were recorded on the islands of Schouwen-Duiveland and Goeree-Overflakkee. 305 people drowned in the village of Oude-Tonge. 20-year-old Jos de Boet from Oude-Tonge lost 42 family members in the disaster. [4] 200,000 animals died, 3,500 houses and farms were lost in the flood, and another 43,000 were severely damaged. [23] [24]

Afterwards, the government formed the Delta Commission to study the causes and effects of the floods. They estimated that flooding killed 1,835 people and forced the emergency evacuation of 70,000 more. Floods covered 9% of Dutch farmland, and sea water flooded 1,365 km2 (527 sq mi) of land. An estimated 30,000 animals drowned, and 47,300 buildings were damaged, of which 10,000 had to be demolished (or were swept away). The total damage is estimated at 1 billion Dutch guilders.

Een dubbeltje op zijn kant
("A dubbeltje
(small coin) on its edge", meaning 'a narrow escape'), a sculpture by Roel Bendijk of de Twee Gebroeders
in the Groenedijk Sturmflut 1953 2.jpg
Een dubbeltje op zijn kant ("A dubbeltje (small coin) on its edge", meaning 'a narrow escape'), a sculpture by Roel Bendijk of de Twee Gebroeders in the Groenedijk

Near flooding of other parts

The Schielands Hoge Zeedijk (Schielands High Seadyke) along the river Hollandse IJssel was all that protected three million people in the provinces of North and South Holland from flooding. A section of this dyke, known as the Groenendijk, was not reinforced with stone revetments. The water level was just below the crest and the seaward slope was weak.

Volunteers worked to reinforce this stretch. However, the Groenendijk began to collapse under the pressure around 5:30 am on 1 February. Seawater flooded into the deep polder. In desperation, the mayor of Nieuwerkerk commandeered the river ship de Twee Gebroeders ('The Two Brothers') and ordered the owner to plug the hole in the dyke by navigating the ship into it. Fearing that the ship might break through into the polder, Captain Arie Evegroen took a row boat with him. The mayor's plan was successful, as the ship was lodged firmly into the dyke, reinforcing it against failure and saving many lives.

The Afsluitdijk across the entrance of the Zuiderzee was said to have paid for its construction cost in that one night, by preventing destructive flooding around the three great meers that used to be the Zuiderzee.

Reaction

Several neighbouring countries sent soldiers to assist in searching for bodies and rescuing people. The United States Army sent helicopters from Germany to rescue people from rooftops. Queen Juliana and Princess Beatrix visited the flooded area only a few days after. A large aid program, the National Relief Fund, was launched, and soldiers raised funds by selling pea soup door to door. Internationally, 100,000 commemorative postcards, featuring an illustration by Eppo Doeve, were sold. [15] A national donation program was started and there was a large amount of international aid. The Red Cross was overwhelmed by contributions, and diverted some of the funds to assist residents of Third World countries.

It was found that the flooding could have been 4 feet (1.2 m) higher; the Rijkswaterstaat's plan concerning the protection and strengthening of the dikes was accepted. [19] As a result, authorization was granted for the Delta Works, an elaborate project to enable emergency closing of the mouths of most estuaries, to prevent flood surges upriver.

United Kingdom

A breach at Erith after the 1953 flood TB 1953 1.jpg
A breach at Erith after the 1953 flood

The North Sea flood of 1953 was the worst flood of the 20th century in England and Scotland. Over 1,600 km (990 mi) of coastline was damaged, [25] and sea walls were breached in 1,200 places, [26] inundating 160,000 acres (65,000 ha; 250 sq mi). [25] Flooding forced over 30,000 people from their homes, [25] [26] and 24,000 properties were greatly damaged. [27] [26] The damage is estimated as £50 million at 1953 prices, approximately £1.2 billion at 2013 prices. [25]

Probably the most devastating storm to affect Scotland for 500 years, the surge crossed between Orkney and Shetland. The storm generated coastal and inland hazards, including flooding, erosion, destruction of coastal defences, and widespread wind damage. Damage occurred throughout the country, with 19 fatalities reported. [28] The fishing village of Crovie, Banffshire, built on a narrow strip of land along the Moray Firth, was abandoned by many, as large structures were swept into the sea.

The surge raced down the east coast into the mid-to-southern North Sea, where it was amplified by shallower waters.

Illustration of the flooded areas in England Flooding.png
Illustration of the flooded areas in England

Canvey Island in Essex was inundated, with the loss of 58 lives. [29] Some 41 people died at Felixstowe in Suffolk when wooden prefabricated homes in the West End area of the town were flooded. [30] Another 37 died when the seafront village of Jaywick near Clacton was flooded. [31]

In Lincolnshire, flooding occurred from Mablethorpe to Skegness, reaching 3 kilometres (2 miles) inland. Police Officers Charles Lewis and Leonard Deptford received George Medals for their part in rescue work. Lewis leapt from a police station upper window to save an elderly couple being swept away in 3 feet (1 m) of floodwater, carrying them to a house across the road to safety, then continuing rescue work for hours until he found a working telephone to call for help. Deptford was off-duty at his son's party when the wall of water hit. He realised that elderly people were vulnerable as the sea wall was breached and he dragged and carried many to safety. At one house he found a bedridden elderly couple with their middle-aged daughter; in the waist-high floodwater, he lashed together oil cans to make a raft, to which he tied the couple and pulled them to safety. He carried on into daylight, his last rescue being a dog. [32]

Reis Leming, an American airman, and United States Air Force Staff sergeant Freeman A Kilpatrick were also awarded the George Medal for rescuing respectively 27 and 18 people at South Beach, Hunstanton. [33] [34] At Salthouse the Victorian Randall's Folly was badly damaged, resulting in its subsequent demolition. [35]

In south-west Essex, water overspilled the Royal Docks into Silvertown, where it drained into the sewers but flooded back in Canning Town and Tidal Basin. William Hayward, a night watchman at William Ritchie & Son, died of exposure to gas from a damaged pipe the only fatality in London. Almost 200 people were homeless and took refuge at Canning Town Public Hall. [36] The village of Creekmouth on Barking Creek, the mouth of the Roding, was wholly flooded by the sea surge and later demolished. Residents were relocated elsewhere in Barking. [37]

The total death toll on land in the UK is estimated at 307. The total death toll at sea for the UK, including the 135 lost in the sinking of MV Princess Victoria, is estimated at 224. [38]

Belgium

Affected areas of Flanders Belgien1953.png
Affected areas of Flanders

The coastal defences of Flanders were severely damaged. Near Ostend, Knokke and Antwerp, heavy damage was done to the sea defence with local breaches. Twenty-eight people died.

Responses

After the 1953 flood, governments realised that similar infrequent but devastating events were possible in the future. In the Netherlands the government conceived and constructed an ambitious flood defence system beginning in the 1960s. Called the Delta Works (Dutch : Deltawerken), it is designed to protect the estuaries of the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt. The system was completed in 1998, with completion of the storm surge barrier Maeslantkering in the Nieuwe Waterweg, near Rotterdam.

In the UK, the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office, Sir Frank Newsam, coordinated the immediate efforts to defend homes, save lives and recover after the floods. After the flooding, the government made major investments in new sea defences. The Thames Barrier programme was started to secure Central London against a future storm surge; the Barrier was officially opened on 8 May 1984. A range of flood defence measures were initiated around the UK coast.

Remembrance

Blue plaque in Leigh-on-Sea commemorating the flood 1953 Flood Blue Plaque.jpg
Blue plaque in Leigh-on-Sea commemorating the flood

In 2013, a service was held at Chelmsford Cathedral to mark the 60th anniversary of the Great Flood, attended by Anne, Princess Royal. Acts of remembrance were also held in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. [39]

A blue plaque marking the level of the flood water was installed by the Leigh Society on the wall of the Heritage Centre in Leigh-on-Sea to commemorate the flooding there. [40]

There is also a blue plaque marking the height of the flood water at Sutton-on-Sea in Lincolnshire. [41]

In 2011, 58 years after the flood, a service of remembrance was held outside the library on Canvey Island in Essex to unveil a plaque commemorating the 58 people who lost their lives on the island. [42]

The Watersnoodmuseum or Flood Museum in Ouwerkerk, Netherlands opened in 2001 as the "National Knowledge and Remembrance Centre for the Floods of 1953". [43]

Books, films and music

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Gerritsen, Herman (15 June 2005). "What happened in 1953? The Big Flood in the Netherlands in retrospect". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 363 (1831): 1271–1291. doi:10.1098/rsta.2005.1568.
  2. Tregaskis, Shiona (31 January 2013). "Devastation on England's east coast after 1953's 'Big Flood' – in pictures". the Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  3. "The Battle of the Floods". blogs.bl.uk. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Watersnoodramp herdacht: 'Getallen zeggen iets, verhalen zeggen alles'". nos.nl (in Dutch). 1 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  5. "The devastating Storm of 1953". The History Press . Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  6. "Aspo". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  7. "Yewvalley". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  8. "Sheldon". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  9. "Michael Griffith". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  10. "Guava". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  11. "Salland". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  12. "Westland". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  13. "Catharina Duvvis". www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  14. Alan Villiers, Posted missing. The Story of Ships Lost without Trace in Recent Years, pp. 3 to 75
  15. 1 2 Komen, Lizzy (31 January 2019). "The Watersnoodramp: the Dutch battle against water in moving image". Europeana . Retrieved 31 January 2019. (CC BY-SA)
  16. d'Angremond, K. (March 2003). "From Disaster to Delta Project: The Storm Flood of 1953". Terra et Aqua (90): 3–10.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 "Watersnood, een reconstructie van de watersnoodramp in 1953" [Watersnood, a reconstruction of the flood disaster in 1953]. lab.nos.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  18. "Herdenking slachtoffers watersnoodramp 1953, 66 jaar geleden" [Commemoration of the victims of the 1953 flood disaster, 66 years ago] (in Dutch). 1 February 2019. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  19. 1 2 3 Ley, Willy (October 1961). "The Home-Made Land". For Your Information. Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 92–106.
  20. Embrechts, P. (2019). "January 31, 1953 and 9/11:Living with risk". London School of Economics Public Lecture. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  21. Noyons, K. (2002). "De stemmen van de watersnood: Hilversumse Radio en de Zeeuwse Stormramp van 1953" [The voices of the flood: Hilversum Radio and the Zeeland Storm Disaster of 1953]. TMG Journal for Media History (in Dutch). 5 (2): 35–63. doi: 10.18146/tmg.524 .
  22. Rollema, D. (2004). "Amateur Radio Emergency Network During 1953 Flood". Proceedings of the IEEE. 92 (4): 759–762. doi:10.1109/JPROC.2004.825908. S2CID   24008591.
  23. Schreuder, Arjen (1 February 2023). "'Als we nu geen drastische maatregelen nemen, zullen we nog veel herdenkingen zoals deze nodig hebben'". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  24. Wismans, Laura (1 February 2023). "Er zit nog wel wat speling in de Deltawerken om de stijgende zee te keren". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  25. 1 2 3 4 1953 east coast flood - 60 years on   Met Office, April 2013 (retrieved January 2019)
  26. 1 2 3 The Flood of 1953   The Open University OpenLearn, September 2004
  27. Stratton, J.M. (1969). Agricultural Records. John Baker. ISBN   978-0-212-97022-3.
  28. Hickey, Kieran R. (2001). "The storm of 31 January to 1 February 1953 and its impact on Scotland". Scottish Geographical Journal. 117 (4): 283–295. Bibcode:2001ScGJ..117..283H. doi:10.1080/00369220118737129. S2CID   129865692.
  29. Heatherson, Liam (1 December 2013). "Remembering the 1953 Floods on Canvey". Beyond the Point. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  30. "Disaster victims to be remembered on floods tragedy anniversary". Ipswich Star. 4 January 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  31. Grieve, Hilda (1959). The GreatTide: The Story of the 1953 Flood Disaster in Essex. Essex County Council.
  32. "Queen Honours Men and Women - 1953 Flood". Liverpool Daily Post. 29 April 1953. p. 6. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  33. "Obituaries:Reis Leming". Daily Telegraph . 18 November 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  34. "Tributes paid to forgotten hero, Freeman Kilpatrick, who saved lives in Hunstanton in 1953 floods". 25 September 2014. Archived from the original on 31 December 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  35. "Onesiphorus's Wealth and Folly!". Norfolk Tales, Myths & More!. 23 August 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  36. Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi (2012). The Sugar Girls. Collins. p.  191. ISBN   978-0-00-744847-0.
  37. "The Great Flood of 1953". Creekmouth Preservation Society. 31 January 1953. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  38. "1953 east coast flood – 60 years on". Met Office. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  39. "Commemoration". BBC. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  40. Text on the blue plaque on the wall of the Heritage Centre in Leigh-on-Sea.
  41. "BBC Radio Lincolnshire - Melvyn in the Morning, 17/10/2012, East Coast Floods - Melvyn with John Monk in Sutton on Sea". BBC. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  42. "Commemorating the North Sea Flood of 1953". Essex Explorer Magazine. Spring 2023. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  43. "National Monument". Watersnoodmuseum. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  44. "BASS 2010: Jim Shepard, "The Netherlands Lives With Water" | A Just Recompense". Sloopie72.wordpress.com. 18 April 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  45. "Google Drive Viewer" . Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  46. nl:Oosterschelde; Windkracht 10

North Sea flood of 1953
Watersnoodramp 1953.jpg
Aftermath of the flood in Oude-Tonge, Goeree-Overflakkee, Netherlands