At the commemoration of the flood disaster of 1953 in Halsteren, Ina Adema, Commissioner of the King of North Brabant, warned that attention to water and safety should never slacken. “The technology continues to provide new insights into the behavior of water and the construction of dikes. It is never finished,” said Adema during a well-attended meeting in the Sint-Quirinuskerk.
She pointed out that in 1953 people were still unaware of climate change, rising sea levels and subsiding soils and that there are more and more things to consider. “Higher sea levels affect the rivers that literally have to be given space,” says Adema.
“The report ‘Without water, no later’ was recently published, which makes it very clear that the soil is drying out. It’s about safety, it’s about quality of life. It’s about rethinking the way we deal with it.”
247 people from Brabant died
Among the 1836 people who died in the Netherlands seventy years ago as a result of the flood disaster, 247 were from Brabant. The disaster claimed 63 lives in Halsteren and fifteen in neighboring Lepelstraat.
“Behind those cold statistics are the stories of people who survived the disaster,” said Adema. “Stories of flight, survival on roofs, stories of rescues with rowing boats. Stories of the relief efforts, of courage and heroic deeds, of the evacuations.”