Barefoot and with the trouser legs rolled up. This is how Miriam van Esch from Den Bosch comes home these days. She lives in a houseboat on the Kerkhoekweg near the Bossche Ertveldplas and due to the excessive rain her entire garden is flooded. “We are used to something, but this is very wet,” says Miriam.
The sandy path towards the houseboats has turned into a large mud puddle. In the surrounding nature reserve, cows graze in flooded meadows and this is what the backyards of the houseboat residents also look like. Where you normally just step out the door and walk from the grass onto the dike, the boats are now surrounded by water.
Taking the dog for a walk is now quite an ordeal for Miriam. “Since Christmas we have had to do some climbing and rowing boats to get to the boat. And sometimes even through the ice-cold water,” says Miriam, dressed in a rain suit with a hood.
She has lived on the water for twelve years and has often experienced the water being so high. But that was usually in the spring or summer. “So we are somewhat used to it. But now it is much colder, so that is extra difficult.”
“We’ll wait until it subsides.”
Last week the water was still halfway up the dike and Miriam had to row to the front door. Now only part of the gangway to her boat is still under water. While balancing on a seat of the rowing boat, she takes off her shoes and socks. “There’s no point in putting on rubber boots, because they fill up. I should actually wear a fishing suit, but I don’t have one,” she laughs.
Her neighbor and his two children can’t even go outside. Their garden is flooded up to the front door. “It’s been this high since last night,” the man says coolly from the doorway. “But we will wait until it has subsided.”
“If there is a need, we help each other.”
The neighbor on the other side is doing better. He has built a jetty to his boat, one and a half meters high. “Over the years I have made sure that it is in order, because every year we have high tides,” says Sanchez Eekels.
He is no longer surprised by all that water. “I grew up on the Maas. These are the advantages and disadvantages you have in a houseboat.” But if his neighbors are still unable to move in the coming days, he will of course be there for them. “If there is a need, we help each other. We all have a boat and can sail to each other if necessary.”
It will probably freeze next week and Mirjam is worried about that. “Then you also have to keep an eye on your water pipes,” she says. “It really is a winter that makes you think: wow, it can end quickly.”
