Farmers, families and insurance companies are counting the cost of Sunday’s very heavy rainfall, which led to flash floods and waterlogged fields in parts of the country.

The Dutch insurers’ association estimates households will put in damages claims totalling €500,000 – mainly caused by flooded cellars and leaking roofs. The fire brigade were called out to deal with floods and other problems at least 4,000 times on Sunday, mainly in the south west of the country.

Farmers in parts of Zeeland and on the former island of Goeree-Overflakkee face a wait of about a week before water levels sink back to normal, news agency ANP said.

In particular, the potato, sprout and chicory crops may suffer from being submerged for too long, a spokesman from the LTO farming union said.

October

In some places, the volume of rain which fell on Sunday was equivalent to the entire rainfall in a normal October – up to 90 mm.

‘Such an amount of rain is very rare,’ Ben Lankamp of the Weerplaza weather bureau told the AD.

According to RTL news, more rain is set to hit the Netherlands overnight on Monday, with western and central parts bearing the brunt.

‘But the volume of rain won’t be as heavy as at the weekend,’ tv weatherman Reinier van den Berg said. On Tuesday there will be more showers but some sunny spells.