I read this morning in het Parool that the dike had broken up there, and that the safety of the people living there 'could not be guaranteed'. On top of that more extreme weather is expected (duhhh, maybe its has something to do with climate change?, let's deny it as long as possible, preferably until our homes are flooded).
This is one very very big reason I will never ever buy a house or real estate here in the Netherlands. Nature will win this battle eventually. It always does.

Sadly this is only going to become more and more common. I had not expected to see these sort of changes so quickly with Climate Change, but then nature cannot be controlled and the only thing we can say with any accuracy, is that nature/weather will always act in an unpredictable way. Let's hope it is a forewarning and not an irreversible shift in our weather patterns. We are in Arnhem and this morning all our rivers are also looking close to overflow (which happened last year).

I'm a firm believer in the 'climate change' phenomenon but these recent high wind and flooding incidents are nothing new; this is a weather pattern that has happened many times in the past here in the Netherlands.

Sending good thoughts to everyone. Hope everyone stays safe and that these storms pass quickly with very little damage.

If this is global warmning - what would the plans be to resettle the Dutch when 25% of the population and 21% of the usable land is under sea level?

@Quince: I think the large-scale weather pattern is common here, but the intensity and rain amount is getting more severe, much like predicted.

Please read Quince's comment. spot on.

Best wishes to all affected!
How the heck do some of you people peck away on your keyboards with your foil hats on? I've lived in Europe on and off for several decades, and worked in the North Sea, and I can assure you while we don't see gale forced winds all the time, they are not uncommon. Was '53 caused by Climate Change, or Global Warming? The battering of the Spanish Armada by wind/waves, was Global Warming caused by lanterns? It's OK that you may believe in Climate Change, or even that mankind may be influencing all/part of this change. Just PLEASE take a broader view of the history of the world, and realize you 'could' be wrong.

Good luck to all 'my' Dutch people. I hope you do not suffer as you did in the Nijmegen floods in the 90's
I wish you well

@DH Climate change scientists examine polar ice cores which reveal climate patterns for the last 800,000 years. I think they've got the broad view of history covered.

DH, I´m totally agree with you.

The water in the many rivers that run to the Dutch delta stream very fast. This is due to the straightening of riverbeds and the amount of asphalt that prevent rainwater to get into the soil. This makes it difficult for us Dutch to spill the riverwater quickly into the Northsea. So when the winds and the tide are against us problems occur. So the cause is manmade but has nothing to do with climate change.

In 2012, with all of the hard core scientific studies and solid evidence proving that the earth is absolutely without question becoming warmer, I cannot believe that people in the Netherlands - which is meters below sea level - would continue to deny this! Oh well, doesn't matter to me so much, I don't own a home or property here and I still have my US passport. Still I am perplexed by people's ability to deny what is happening right before their own eyes.

Climate is per defenition a set of values determined over a long period of time. Why is it we try to say this singular instance of a few factors is climate change? That is the same as saying 'Well it's 2 degrees warmer today then yesterday! Climate Change!!!' If we could establish these values changed dramaticly over the last five years for example it maybe right to say thew climate is changing. This still is nothing new...