Today we had no group events until 1 pm, so I took a much needed sleep in and slept until noon. At one, we boarded the bus and headed off to the Watersnoodmuseum.

The Watersnoodmuseum is a national museum dedicated to the Floods of 1953. The museum is located on the dike south of the village of Ouwerkerk, and it is actually housed in the four caissons that were used to close the last gap in the flood wall following the Floods of 1953. A caisson is basically a giant concrete block used as a wall to hold off water.

The Floods of 1953 happened because a large storm surge off the North Sea hit coastal Europe, and most of the damage occurred in the Netherlands. 1835 Dutch people died in the flood, over 9% of Dutch farmland was destroyed and over 70000 people were evacuated.

Dykes along the coast were breached in over 150 places due to the storm. At low tide, the water level was as high as it usually is at high tide. That, combined with the windy storm, caused the water levels to rise a record 4.5 meters above sea level. For a lot of coastal villages in the Netherlands that are already below sea level, this spelled out disaster.

There were no early warning systems at the time, at most people had a few minutes warning due to ringing church bells and people running door to door to wake each other up.

At the museum, the victims are remembered in several ways. They display personal items of the victims, as well has first hand accounts from family members. The most moving, to me, is how in one of the caissons the names are projected onto the sand and scroll off into the distance.

The museum also talks about how the Netherlands water control was revolutionized following the disaster. The Delta Works was created by the Dutch government in the following years. We actually have a visit to the Delta Works planned in a few days, and I’m excited to go more in depth into what it is.

Basically, the Delta Works reduces the length of the coastline using a series of storm surge barriers, locks and dams. When a storm is approaching that will raise water levels, estuaries are closed off from the sea, thus reducing the amount of dykes needed to protect the Netherlands. The Delta Works is such a massive and successful undertaking that it’s sometimes referred to as the 8th wonder of the world.

The museum also highlights how important it is to understand and prepare for floods as the world continues to heat up and sea levels continue to rise. As an environmental engineer, I found the museum absolutely fascinating from a technical perspective, but I also loved learning about how the whole world came together to help the victims of the flood.

After the museum we headed back to the hostel and made it back at around 7 pm. Some friends and I headed out to get some Thai food for dinner, and it was delicious. Tomorrow we visit InHolland Delft, which is a university in the Netherlands. See you then!