The water level of the Markermeer will be stable on Saturday and will reach a peak on Sunday, the Hollands Noorderkwartier Water Board (HHNK) expects. The water board tells the ANP news agency that a peak of 45 centimeters above Normal Amsterdam Level (NAP) will be reached on Sunday between 6 a.m. and 12 noon due to wind that will push up the already high level. Sandbags were placed on the dike at Durgerdam earlier this week.
Rijkswaterstaat stated on Friday that the overall water level in the Netherlands will rise slightly this weekend, and will drop again after the weekend due to favorable weather forecasts. For the time being, the level does not appear to cause much inconvenience this weekend. However, there has been some traffic jam on the A73 between Maasbracht and Nijmegen, because the entrance ramp at Grubbervorst has been flooded. Rijkswaterstaat thinks it will need at least until Sunday to pump out the water.
In the North Holland village of Warder, a rescue station affiliated with the Royal Dutch Rescue Company cannot be used in the coming days due to flooding, according to reports. news site NH News. Other stations in the area will take over the duties of the one in Warder.
Emptying polders
The water level has dropped in Friesland. The Wetterskip (water board) Fryslân has decided to pump out the polders in which water was retained, in order to lower the water level in other waters, according to Omrop Friesland.
This Saturday, work also started on repairing the dam in Maastricht that broke through earlier this week. Defense deployed two so-called Chinook helicopters, which lowered a hundred nets, each containing 4,000 kilos of rubble stone, near the dam. The work will continue again on Sunday.