FLOOD DAMAGE IN HOLLAND

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27050, 27 May 1953, Page 13

FLOOD DAMAGE IN HOLLAND

CLEANING UP AFTER WRECKAGE

CONDITIONS IN ONE MARKET TOWN

(From a Reuter Correspondent) _ ZIERIKZEE, SCHOtTWEN-DUIVE-LAND ISLAND, HOLLAND.—Spring cleaning in the flood-devastated towns and villages of Holland’s south-west this year is a task few housewives are likely to forget. This inarket town, the hoipe of 7000 persons, was before last January as spick and span as any town in the Netherlands. Today, more-than three months after the raging floodwaters tore down the dykes in the “terror days” of early February, Zierikzee is a shambles. Only 500 out °f its houses are undamaged. Whole rows of buildings are devastated, while the once-spotless streets are littered with rotting furniture, general debris, and endless piles of mud.

The great majority of Zierikzee’s 4000 evacuees have now come back from the mainland and are busy wrestling with the long task of restoring order. Tough, self-reliant, strong-willed people, they bitterely resented leaving their semi-isolated island home when the floods struck and the Burgomaster ordered compulsory evacuation. A group of them even weht so far as to sue the Burgomaster for unlawful action and abuse of authority. Scores of returning families found their houses almost unrecognisaljle. Some, indeed were totally destroyed, but the majority sfill stood in more or less battered condition. Broken doors and windows gaped forlornly, revealing within each house a housewife’s nightmare. Furniture and carnets of course, were ruined. Rotting floodboards and crumbling plaster lay hidden beneath a deep layer of hardening mud Undaunted, housewives and their families set about cleaning up. They shifted furniture, threw out carpets, and then shovelled out the mud in spadefuls and wheelbarrow loads. Scrubbing has begun in earnest, an almost endless task when mud has permeated every crack and cranny. Husbands taking time off from dyke repairs and other outside jobs are doing all they can to help. Fires must be lit and kept burning to dry out the soaked woodwork and partitions. In some places special hot air machines designed to warm aircraft engines before starting have been put to use in drying flooded houses. Life is coming back to Zierikzee, painfully and by infinitely ' slow degrees. Its 300 children have gone back to school in temporary buildings, shops have reopened, and the one cinema is doing a roaring trade. 500 Deaths But the flood’s aftermath is still very real. One of the town’s doctors, young Dr. P. W. I. Vogelaar, told me: “On this island about .500 people died in the floods, and to this day about 100 bodjes are still beneath the ruins pr- under water. But the Zeeland people are a strong and healthy race,” he declared. “Even people of 60 and older who spent a whole day in the icy February water were usually none the worse for their ordeal, and the number of sick was surprisingly small.” Another call was on Mr L. Eelkema, an engineer of the Agricultural Reconstruction Service, who says that even if farmers get full compensation for damage suffered to this year’s crops, they will still suffer losses from land which will remain unprofitable for years to come. Shouwen - Duiveland, the worst affected of all Holland’s flooded areas, is still wide open to the sea at several places, so that only hastily-bolstered inland dykes save the whole island from inundation. Engineers hope to close the breaches before the end of the year, but they are not sure of success.

Human and legal problems abound. Mr Van de Ende, Public Notary, said that succession and inheritance questions concerning interstate floor victims would probably be settled on the same basis as after tie war, when many concentraion camp inmates did not return.

Claims for Damage Valuation of property and claims for State compensation and insurance payments are just a few of the problems facing hard-hit Zierikzee. An insurance expert said that many of the island’s com merchants were insured only against fire. They now placed all their faith in Holland’s National Disaster Fund for cash compensation. Zierikzee’s burgomaster produced a chart and explained that the municipality plans to build a ring-dyke round the town measuring nearly two miles and costing 250,000 guilders (about £25,000). When it was completed, he hoped in 40 to 60 working days, it would provide “fairly adequate protection’’ to parts of the town which were still flooded. Payments for damaged furniture and household goods would have to wait until Parliament passed the necessary laws, the burgomaster said. It would probably be on the same basis as war damage compensation—- “ The State provides the brpad and the disaster fund the cheese to make a sandwich,” he added.