Learning from our mistakes - or not

Today we took advantage of having a car and drove to two spots. Kinderdijk is a beautiful area with lots of windmills which were built, like most of the windmills here, so that people could build homes where water was previously - aka "land reclamation." The picture here is of the windmills at Kinderdijk.

After Kinderdijk, we spent the afternoon in Zeeland touring the Delta Works Project, another huge land reclamation project (and impressive display of engineering) on the west coast of the country. The Delta Works began construction after a huge flood in 1953. The quotes taken below are from the museum display:

"In 1953, the dikes were too low - too steep - too weak...All the experts issued warnings. But no action was taken! This was a consequence of the Second World War and the Cold War (in the 1950s). The government spent a great deal on defense in those days and not much on the dikes."

In February, an abnormally strong northwesterly storm blew in from the North Sea. Winds reached 110 km/h out at sea but gusted upwards of 180 km/h. Evacuation began, as water rose to levels previously unseen. By March 1, over 72,000 people had been evacuated from their homes, mostly to control disease spread. Coordination, however, was not smooth. "Those at the top were often unaware of what the rescuers were facing...There were misunderstandings in the armed forces. No one knew exactly who was in command and thee pilots were not allowed to act without orders... After a phase of incompetent maneuvering, coordination of the work carried out by various organizations improved."

The finalization of the Delta Works Project completed a series of storm surge barriers and reinforced dikes that should provide people with protection from the sea for years to come.

Sounds like a familiar story. And it seems fitting considering that now it is midnight here, which means Mardi Gras is well underway in New Orleans, which suffered a similar situation over 50 years after the Zeelanders lost close to 2000 people who died in the flood of 1953. We should learn to pay closer attention to history. It might help us to avoid a lot of heartache and devastation in the future.