High water
The Netherlands is the river delta area from the big rivers flowing from
the mountains in Switzerland, Germany and France through the Netherlands
into the North sea. Also about 40% of the land is below sea level.So flooding of big parts of the Netherlands occurred frequently throughout history.
This is a chart of The Netherlands, the thick red line is the border, on the right (east) with Germany and at the bottom (south) with Belgium.
The black dot in the left upper corner of the red oval is Gorinchem.
The dark blue area's are below sea level.
Flooding is caused by spring tide from the sea and by melting snow and heavy rain in the mountains of the neighbor countries causing rivers to break their banks.
In the early middle ages, the Dutch started to make dikes and from then the battle against the water was on.On this picture you see members of the councils of Holland and West Friesland overlooking the flooding of the land around Gorinchem in 1741.
At the breaking of the ice in the river Merwede, the ice shelves are piled up against the town walls by high winds and water.
Drawn by Cornelis Jonker, February the 20 Th 1799.
Wind and current caused an enormous pile of ice shelves against a corner of the town wall at wind mill the "Runmolen".Drawn by Cornelis Jonker, February the 20 Th 1799.
Water and a pile of ice shelves breaking through a dike in 1799.
On this picture you see the river water breaking through the piling in the year 1809.
This piling was normally put up, to prevent the river water flooding the town, when it raised so high, that it overflowed the bares of the Linge harbor.
Here you see the water flooding the bares of the Linge harbor and running along the houses.The bridge on which the people are standing is causing a vortex in the harbor.
They probably try to move the bridge, because this phenomena could undermine the harbor and the houses.
Also during the flood of 1809, King Lodewijk Napoleon is trying to reach Gorinchem from the east.Here you see the party on de "Dalemse" dike, with the ice piles in the river on the left and the flooded land on the right.
Between Dalem and Gorinchem the dike seemed to be gone completely, because this picture shows King Lodewijk Napoleon making the last piece by boat and approaching Gorinchem.
This picture shows the rising water of the river Linge in January the 26 Th 1820, overrunning the banks of the Linge lock at the north side of town.At the right you see the town gate "Arkelpoort" and the "St. Jan" church tower.
The flood of 1876, at 10 km east of Gorinchem, the dikes are broken, people seek refuge in Gorinchem.
