Today started out at another very sad museum. The museum commemorated the 1,836 people in the Zeelandic islands who were killed in the flood of 1953. The museum does a very good job of depicting the deaths as more than just numbers, describing the stories of some of the people and displaying the belongings of many who died. One story describes a man who was rescued by a helicopter that could not fit his dog and how the dog ran after the aircraft for miles, trying to stay with its master. Another describes a mother who sent her two children to stay in the neighbor’s attic in hopes that they could be saved from the rising water. She then watched them perish as her neighbor’s house collapsed and all she had left was her baby in her arms. The museum mentions multiple times that the grief was so great that many of the Dutch never discussed the trauma of the tragedy. I am not sure if avoiding sharing painful experiences is unique to Dutch culture or a natural human instinct, but the museum did an incredible job ensuring the stories of these people is told.

The museum also told a few stories that were uplifting. For example, the museum mentions Dutch fisherman who went out on their boats immediately after the storm hit and slowly rescued people. The story explains how their ship could only handle a couple of people at a time but, by working nonstop to search for and rescue survivors, in the end they saved an estimated 250 people. That is incredible to me: the actions of these couple of fishermen impacted the lives of so many. Or the story of a group of Dutch army men who went out to rescue people in the aftermath of the storm and worked 3 days straight until they could no longer physically stay awake. But while most of the group was sleeping, one of the army men never took a rest and waded back into the water to rescue a horse they had found stranded in the water. This man subsequently woke the rest of the army men up and they continued their search, sacrificing their bodies and sleep because they knew their help was needed. 

Not only were there individual heroes with stories that stick out, but there were also countless Dutch who set up radios and aided communication between other parts of The Netherlands and the Zeelandic islands. This communication was crucial as the rescue operation was a complex and difficult operation that required coordination between many different groups of rescuers. The flood had knocked out telegram and phone lines to the islands so makeshift radio communication was the only way to enable this communication. The role technology played makes me think about what would happen if this flood were to occur today. Would our modes of communications also fail at a critical time like this? It makes me realize that it is important to consider extreme cases when designing a product so that if disaster strikes, it can still be used and possibly save someone’s life.

The museum also made me think about if it was worth all the risk and effort of taming the sea to live in areas not meant to be populated, such as these islands. The drive into this area was beautiful as the water was abundant and the grass so green. But while that water looks so serene and calming, it is testing the strength of the human infrastructure built to tame it every day. Countless other countries are facing issues with water rising and land sinking in some of their most beautiful but most at risk cities. While I would hate to see people in these places move or see the beautiful cities that house them abandoned, it seems that we are fighting a losing battle against the sea. Venice sinks every year, flooding more often than ever before. New York battles ground water as each new hurricane tests its defenses. The Netherlands has to pump more and more water out from the inhabited side of its dikes as the sea level rises and the ground sinks.

To learn more about this problem The Netherlands faces, we visited an island that had been constructed by the Netherlands to build and deploy sea barriers that today guard nearly every inlet of water to the Zeelandic region. The barriers, which double as bridges to allow travel between the islands, are normally open but can be closed. The reason for this is that if the barriers remained closed they would close off the harbors from the sea, killing the water life within that requires this saltwater. This would both be harmful to the biological ecosystem but would also ruin one of the area’s most important businesses: oysters. Therefore, the complex interaction between ecosystems, which is similar to the complex interactions of the supply chain, required a more complicated and expensive project be taken on so the barrier could be closed only when necessary. The barrier has large hydraulic pistons that can close the gate when in about an hour and a half. They close by lowering a steal barrier into the water that blocks the opening between each bridge pillar. Though it is a simple up and down movement, it is an impressive work of engineering. Unfortunately, though, it requires millions of euros per year to maintain and years when parts must be replaced or repaired, which happens every half a century, a couple billion of euros must be paid. Again, it raises the question of whether or not the cost makes sense. It is clear that these barriers are necessary to save from the disaster described at the beginning of this blog but perhaps the real issue is trying to live in this location.

Finally, my word of the day is lekker which means delicious or good. The reason for this is today we had lunch at the museum and one of the condiments they had out to use for the fries was mayonnaise. I have never seen this in the USA but I am really enjoying the fries and mayonnaise combination.