Thirty years later: the 1995 high-water evacuation remains unforgettable

More than 250,000 residents and 1 million animals had to leave the area in a hurry. For 3 Rijkswaterstaat employees, this large-scale evacuation remains etched in their memories. The high-water crisis, together with the one in 1993, was the direct reason for launching the Room for the River programme.

Urgent advice

At the time, climate adaptation adviser at Rijkswaterstaat, Carina Verbeek, was 8 years old and among those evacuated. ‘We lived in Beusichem, on the River Lek near Culemborg. I found it mostly very exciting,’ she says. Residents along the Lekdijk, including Carina and her parents, were strongly advised to leave their homes. ‘Luckily, my parents stayed quite calm and didn’t panic.’

Extreme high water

Due to excessive rainfall in the higher-lying catchment areas of the Meuse and the Rhine, water discharge reached record levels. Within a short period, vast amounts of water had to be drained toward the North Sea. On 25 January, the water level of the Meuse peaked at 45.09 m above Amsterdam Ordnance Datum (NAP) near the then-unembanked villages of Itteren and Borgharen.

Residents were forced to evacuate. Parts of South Limburg were flooded, causing extensive damage. This high-water crisis, along with the one in 1993, led to the launch of the Meuse Works programme.

Long traffic jams

Water levels in the Rhine also rose rapidly. New record highs were measured each hour. On 30 January, Rijkswaterstaat recorded a 2 m rise in just one day. At Lobith, the water level had already reached 16.68 m, far above the usual range of 7.2 to 12 m. Tens of thousands of residents in the river region had to leave their homes.

On 31 January and 1 February, a mass exodus began. Long traffic jams formed as residents, their cars packed with belongings, sought to escape the danger zone. Trucks shuttled back and forth to evacuate livestock from farms.

Dyke at Ochten

Evacuations went smoothly, and the dykes initially seemed to hold. Many people found shelter with family and friends or stayed in the Jaarbeurs convention centre, which was temporarily converted into a crisis centre. However, when the Waal dyke at Ochten started shifting, the situation became critical.

Hundreds of military personnel were deployed to reinforce it with sandbags. To everyone’s relief, the Waal dyke held, preventing a catastrophic flood.

Everyone helped each other

Carina, her parents, and their 2 cats stayed with her aunt in Amersfoort. They had to evacuate because the dyke at Ochten was at risk of collapsing. ‘If that dyke had given way, the entire Betuwe would have flooded,’ Carina recalls. ‘We had already moved everything from the ground floor upstairs. The entire neighbourhood helped one another carry belongings.’ By around 5 February, the water had receded enough for everyone to return home.

Room for the River 2.0

The river floods and this ‘near disaster’ triggered the launch of both the Room for the River and Meuse Works programmes. ‘It’s an approach that works,’ Carina explains. ‘For instance, widening floodplains has created more room to accommodate high water. This method has significantly contributed to lowering water levels, making the Netherlands not only safer but also more attractive.’

Within the new Room for the River 2.0 programme, Rijkswaterstaat is working with many partners on an updated plan for the rivers. ‘This plan addresses both high and low water,’ says Carina. ‘We want to improve water retention, storage, and discharge, and also better adapt to the effects of climate change, such as prolonged and more extreme droughts, heavier rainfall, increased river discharges, rising sea levels, and extreme heat.’

Carina does not expect to experience an evacuation like this again. ‘The likelihood is small but not 0,’ she says. ‘The Netherlands is a water-rich country in a vulnerable location. Flood protection remains our top priority.’

Memories of a lock keeper and road inspector

Jos Simissen and Piet van Sandijk also vividly remember early 1995. Both were already employed at Rijkswaterstaat, Jos as a lock keeper at the Sambeek lock complex, and Piet as a road inspector in the northeast Netherlands. That year, the job title ‘road inspector’ replaced ‘cantonnier.’

Lock keeper Jos recalls: ‘All shipping was halted along the entire Meuse. My colleagues and I would occasionally take a boat to the control centre to check water levels and forecasts. At one point, we were literally sailing over the locks.’

Crash course in dyke inspections

Because all colleagues in the flooded area had been evacuated, Piet and other road inspectors were hastily trained as temporary dyke monitors. ‘We started in the Ooijpolder near the village of Kekerdom. We had a 7 km stretch of dyke under our responsibility. As road inspectors, of course, we were laymen when it came to high water our work was on motorways.

We knew what a sand boil was and that we were supposed to seal it at least, that’s what we initially thought. 2 very experienced inspectors quickly told us the opposite: you have to let the water drain while keeping the sand in place. We did this by using sandbags covered with a net, so the water could flow out but the sand remained.’

‘It’s just part of the job’

When the dyke at Ochten began shifting, it was a tense moment even for Piet. ‘I was working in Rossum and had to rush to the Valburg junction to close the motorway. No more traffic was allowed onto the A15. I was definitely nervous because I lived in that area myself.’ Like Carina and Jos, Piet looks back on an extraordinary experience.

‘For me, it mainly meant long days and short nights. You don’t really think about it at the time you just do it because it’s your job. Thanks to the Room for the River programme, a high-water crisis like the one 30 years ago will hopefully remain a thing of the past.’