MOON, SEA AND SKY
COMPOUND FREAKISH
RECIPE FOR DISASTER
iMSTERD;
GREENLAND
CYCLONIC
ICELANO
CYCLONE
COLLIDES WITH
WARM AIR
j^OVES EAST
.SCOTLAND
DENMARK
UNCOINSHII
Zuider 1
Zee O
EAST
AN Gil.
LONDON
O ST
500,0DO ACRES
FLOODED IN HOLLAND
DUNKIRK
English Channel
METEOROLOGICAL FREAK, diagramed here, came when high pressure
area met cyclone, breeding gales which drove waters into North Sea. With high
spring tides raised by full moon, wind-driven waters overflowed narrow funnel
at sea's foot, flooding coast (blue areas). Cross marks sinking of British ferry.
Up between Ireland and Scotland the weird
storm claimed 132 lives at one blow when a
swamped ferry went down off Belfast. Down in
Holland, Dutch soldiers recalled from leave
fought to plug the dikes. But the barricades
melted away faster than men could work, and
on both sides of the channel the tides moved
freely over the land, undermining highways,
crumbling cottages and mansions, tossing up
a tragic flotsam of drowned farm animals. In
the end a quarter-million fertile British acres
and twice as many in Holland were poisoned
with salt that might take years to leach out so
they could be restored to production. The cost
was pure guesswork, but the Dutch, who only
the week before had proudly announced in
dependence of further MSA funds from the
U.S., sadly asked that assistance be renewed.
works, stack bricks and sandbags in a back-breaking effort to close gap. already
hundreds of yards wide. Water still spurts through their emergency barricade.
BROKEN DIKE lets sea come pouring in a cataract into village in Holland's
Noord-Brabant province. Dutch soldiers, one still wearing his pack while he
LIFEBOAT NEARS A RESCUE SHIP WITH HALF OF THE 44 SAVED FROM FERRY
HUNG UP ON THE BARBED WIRE, THE DROWNED BODIES OF SHEEP RISE UP
STARKLY AS FLOOD RECEDES. ENGLAND LOST MORE THAN 11,000 SHEEP
CRASHING YORKSHIRE SEA WALL, SEA DWARFS HOTEL, MAN AND AUTO (LEFT)
