North Sea Flood - 1953
Recognised as one of the greatest storm surges on U.K. records, the North Sea Flood impacted the lives of many throughout the Eastern U.K., The Netherlands and Belgium. In the U.K. alone an estimated 326 people lost their lives on land with a further 224 deaths occurring at sea, as well as widespread damage to property, infrastructure, inundation of thousands of kilometres of coastline and over one hundred thousand acres of lands. This flood is recognised as one of the largest natural disasters that the U.K. has experienced and led to many changes in order to reduce the impacts of similar events in the future.
Cause
On the 30th January 1953 a low-pressure deepened over northern Scotland with air pressure dropping to 968 millibars, as a result of this the sea level rose by approximately 30 cm. This was then further combined with prolonged, violent wind conditions moving approximately 425 million m3 southwards, raising the sea-level by an extra 60 cm. As such the tide came as a giant wave that was hundreds of kilometres long, recording to that point the highest tide on record. The combination of the low-pressure, the strong winds and full moon in the sky, which further increased tidal ranges, led to a flood event that would greatly shape how events such as these were dealt with.
Flood Event
On the 31st January 1953 it was reported across eastern U.K. that the no ebb had occurred in the natural tide progression in many coastal areas across Eastern England. This was until approximately 5 PM where the first mention of landfall was seen with the inundation of sand dunes and sea walls from the wave being noted throughout Lincolnshire, with the further widespread impact of this event set to unfold. As the wave began to inundate large areas of the eastern coast of the UK damaging local infrastructure and properties due to the large weight of the water as it came ashore.
At this point the first major disaster of the event occurred with 40 properties in South Hunstanton being destroyed leading to all but three of them being completely destroyed leading to the deaths of 65 people, mainly American servicemen and their families stationed in the region. In Harwich, Essex strong winds and heavy seas crashed deep into the harbour and estuaries along the south east coast with the sea inundating most of the Essex coast by 10 pm. By 11 pm the local police of Harwich began efforts to alert people about the coming water, however, just 30 minutes later the metre high waves began to crash into the houses of the region flooding the surrounding area.
Across other regions of eastern Scotland and England, the storm surge washed ashore destroying established flood defences and swallowing up large areas of land flooding coastal marshes, dunes and agricultural land. With 1,200 breaches to sea defences occurring throughout England alone, all of these breaches had to be repaired quickly due to the coming spring tides set for just two weeks following this event. Over the next two weeks over 8000 civilians and servicemen worked together to repair seawall and lay over 8 million sandbags to prevent further damage to the region from the coming tidal changes.
Impacts
Throughout the course of the flood over 1,600 km of U.K. coastline were damaged, 160,000 acres of land were inundated, with the flooding forcing the evacuation of over 30,000 people as well as greatly damaging 24,000 properties. As such the overall economic damage to the impacted areas accounted for £50 million in damages for 1953 which is equivalent to £1.43 Billion in damages for 2021.
On land there were 307 deaths recorded in the counties of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex as well as 19 further deaths in Scotland. With offshore deaths accounting for a further 230 with the sinking of a ferry, MV Princess Victoria, accounting for 133 of these with the other deaths being attributed to many fishing vessels that sank.
As a result of the large amounts of damage from this flood, the UK government led in-depth reviews of the event leading to significant improvements in coastal defences. This also led to the creation of early warning systems, including the development of the Storm tide warning service now a part of the national severe weather warming system, as well as the completion of the Thames barrier, designed to protect London from storm surges similar to the one seen during the North Sea flood.