Today we had a late start to the day, which allowed some of us to get some much needed rest before visiting the Watersnoodmuseum. Our bus picked us up around 1 and it took us about an hour to get there before we dove into learning. The museum was located in the four major caissons that were used to fix the last dike from the disastrous floods of 1953, which killed many people and families (the names of all of them are listed in the picture below). The people who passed away during the floods were initially buried hastily in emergency cemeteries but were later reburied together, and usually with a monument to commemorate their lives and their fight.
The floods were caused by a major storm in the northwest which also affected England, Belgium, Scotland, and France. The caissons are made out of concrete and steel and have stood the test of time, with the museum becoming the National Knowledge and Remembrance Center for the Water Floods of 1953. The caissons were laid on top of what is called a fascine mattress, which is made up of woven wood, making it natural and environmentally friendly. These mattresses were placed at the bottom of the sea and sunk using blocks of basalt in order to protect the sea bottom from erosion by the currents.
After the floods, groups of housewives and foreign students worked to clean up what was left behind, getting mud and trash out of houses and recovering belongings. These floods caused a major shift in the way people thought about floods, as there was a major realization that floods are becoming more common and more destructive as time goes on. Because of this, people in the Netherlands work hard to try and learn from these floods and the significance of the caissons in order to see how they are changing and how to better predict and protect from massive damage.