Learning from past disasters

WHILE visiting the great dykes of the southwest of Holland last week, memories of a terrible event returned. Fifty-five years ago, this month, the worst natural disaster to hit Europe during the 20th Century occurred there.

Ireland had no television service then but I can recall the newspaper and radio coverage vividly; the front-page photographs made an indelible impression on a nine-year-old. Now, in a world of melting ice-caps and rising sea-levels, there are lessons to be learnt from that tragedy.

An unusually high tide was forecast for the night of Saturday January 31, 1953. This was not expected to be a problem; the dykes were high enough to cope, or so it was thought. Then a storm blew up during the fatal night, the wind raging at Force 12 for an hour around high tide. Even so, the sea-defences should have been adequate. However, a third, and fatal, factor was at play; the direction of the wind.