Saturday, May 13th
Today was yet again a beautiful day in the Netherlands. Early this morning we traveled to Zeeland to learn in detail about the Netherlands flood control. In 1953 there was a massive storm in the area causing 100 mph winds and flooding. This storm wiped out basically the whole town, killing 1836 people. First we visited the Watersnoodmuseum. The museum was inside 4 caissons that were used to close the dyke breach caused by the flood. Because the Netherlands is below sea level and borders the North Sea the area is very susceptible to flooding. Before the flood in 1953, many were aware that the city would be in trouble if there was a large storm due to the conditions of the dykes. Unfortunately, they could not do anything to fix the issue because of a lack of money. When the storm hit the area it was a disaster, ruining the whole town. The one effect that was most interesting to me was the ways of communicating. In the storm cables, telegraph poles, power stations, etc were destroyed. This completely rendered communication to the outside world impossible. The area became completely isolated from the rest of the Netherlands. After the disaster the city realized that this was the area’s biggest concern and that it needed to be fixed immediately. They had to make improvements to the dykes to make them taller and stronger.
We then headed over to the deltaworks museum which goes into more detail about what they use currently to prevent flooding. Now they use a large dam that can open and close when there is an expected storm. There is constantly a group of people in the control room making judgments of the weather. At this museum we had a guided tour of the grounds and also learned about the importance of wind turbines in the area. This location in the Netherlands is particularly windy which makes the energy from the turbines very ideal and efficient. At the museum we were also able to take a boat cruise and see the delta works from the water. After our day of learning about flood control and the history of the area we headed back to Amsterdam. Many of us took advantage of the beautiful weather we had today and went to some cute shops and had dinner in the center of Amsterdam.
