Flooding in the Netherlands

Flooding in the Netherlands

On January 31st 1995 the Rhine was bursting its banks at the point

where it enters the Netherlands. There was heavy rain over most of

Europe at that particular time this year. Switzerland received three

times its January average and the snow off the Alps melted early and

quickly. The ground was saturated because of the heavy downpours as

and that then once that had drained down it transfers into high water

levels and overland flow. Most of the land which surrounds the Rhine

consists of polders which are low-lying areas enclosed by protective

embankments-these are called dykes. These are man made from sand and

clay and they became saturated so they had more chance of collapsing

so emergency work had to be carried out to stop them from collapsing.

The flood happened because nearly all of the polders were flooding

with the extra rainwater, which meant the extra water had nowhere to

go except from across the urban areas. Also deforestation didn't help

because there was nothing to help intercept the water as it ran across

the valleys and forests. When the flood first happened people where

provided with sandbags as temporary barriers to the flooding, the

authorities installed portable pumps to help people pump out the water

and many other things where put in place to help people. A problem as

most roads became impassable which meant people where stranded from

emergency aid, food and water.250, 000 people had to be evacuated from

there homes before people got killed from the fast flowing water, but

4 people still got killed and hundreds of homes where flooded and some

got damaged beyond repair. Just over 1 million cattle where evacuated

from the worst hit farmland which led to reduced intake of milk from

them because of the disturbance and many got foot rot from being stood

in saturated water all day. The flood damage cost millions of pounds

to insurance companies and homeowners in the worst hit areas. It took

many months to completely clear the devastation that the flood left