European Flood Toll
Above 1,500 Dead;
Cold Hits Refugees
THE EVENING SAR
FEB 3 1953'
By the Associated Press
AMSTERDAM, the Nether
lands, Feb. 3.Grim and weary
searchers on both sides of the
English Channel and the North
Sea counted the total known
dead in Europe's greatest storm
and flood disaster in centuries
above the 1,500 mark today as
Western Europe rushed aid to
stricken Holland, England and
Belgium.
Additional bodies by the hun-
I dreds were reported from Dutch
villages isolated by the sea waters
that rushed in some places 40
miles inland. Rain, snow flur
ries and near-freezing tempera
tures added to the horror for
thousands still huddled on roof
tops or high ground for the third
day without food, water or medi
cines.
Premier Willen Drees told the
Dutch Parliament 50.000 persons
will have to be evacuated from
the stricken areas and resettled
in new homes.
This was the latest count of
the dead, compiled from both
official reports and reliable un
official sources:
Holland, 991.
England, 514.
Belgium, 22.
Total, 1,527.
11 Americans Dead.
The dead included 11 Ameri
cans in England. Seven other
Americans were missing there
and presumed dead. All were
airmen stationed in Britain, the
United States Air Force said, or
members of Air Force families.
The Zeeland section of South
west Holland and the Thames
Estuary of Southeast England
emerged as the chief centers of
death, destruction and misery
wrought by the hurricane-
fanned giant waves and tides
which crashed inland over the
week end, smashing everything
in their path.
Many sections of Holland still
were isolated, with as-yet-un-
recorded dead. Early today, 48
hours after the disaster struck,
word finally reached Amsterdam
that 200 people had drowned in
the tiny village of Stavenisse.
An exhausted messenger from
the burgomaster of Oude Tonge,
staggered to safety telling of 180
corpses piled high in a shed on
the twin islands of Goeree and
Over Flakkee. The same mes
senger said 1,500 people had
spent their third night on an
open dike, in sleet and snow,
without water or medicine.
Thousand Square Miles Hit.
Another 70 persons were miss
ing from the village of Stellen
dam, on the same island,
j From dozens of stricken towns
and villages in Holland and1
England the refugees flowed into
i hastily set up camps and cen
ters. Many of them were ill,
most of them hungry, all of
them homeless.
With communications still
widely disrupted, Dutch officials
as yet could make no accurate
estimate of the missing or home
less. A thousand square miles
were estimated floodedmost of
the 23 islands of Zeeland and
South Holland and some of the
world's richest soil. More than
50 Dutch cities, towns and vil
lages had reported deaths so far.
Estimates placed the total
British missing at between 600
and 1,000. Britain counted about
35,000 homeless and 250,000 acres
of land flooded.
Dikes Being Shored Up.
British rescue efforts were
slowed by a frantic fight to shore
up the breached English dikes
against the possibility of new on
slaughts from the sea. The once
hurricane winds were still mod
erating—8 to 18 miles an hour
predicted todaybut seasonal
high tides due again in about
two weeks could bring fresh dis
aster.
American and Allied armed
forces in Europe rushed con
struction and relief supplies and
personnel to the Netherlands.
Lt. Gen. Manton S. Eddy, United
States commander in chief in
Europe, ordered in 300,000 sand
bags, 30,000 spades, six helicop
ters, 15 slow planes, 200 amphibi
ous "ducks," landing craft, and
numerous specialists. Many other
units were alerted to move in
when needed.
NATO's Air Force headquar
ters at Fontainbleau, France,
dispatched a trailer-truck con
voy of supplies and communica
tions specialists to repair the
flood-ripped telephone and tele
graph lines. A United States Air
Force airlift was readied to carry
medicines and other supplies.
French engineers already were
at work.
Offers of Help Pour In.
Offers of help and sympathy
poured into the Dutch foreign
office "from all parts of the
world."
Prime Minister Winston
Churchill termed Britain's flood
a "national responsibility." Brit- j
ain's Queen Mother Elizabeth
broadcast an appeal for help for
the sufferers.
The two countries' monarchs
Juliana in Holland and Eliza
beth II in Englandtoured the
flooded areas and comforted the
sufferers.
