Friday, November 09, 2007
Giant Wave on its Way to England
While my English readers are probably asleep by now, any of them who live along the mouth of the Thames River probably want to leave. A tidal wave (not a tsunami) is headed straight towards England.
A storm in the North Sea is predicted to cause a sea surge of about ten feet (3.05 meters) which will threaten the coastline along the Thames. The tidal surge is being caused by fifty mile per hour winds, an unusually high tide, and a low pressure off the eastern coast of England.
London and areas further down stream are supposedly protected by the Thames Barrier which has been put into place to prevent major flooding damage.
Flooding is predicted to be along the lines of the 1953 flood, also caused by a tidal wave/storm surge. That flood killed well over two thousand people.
The surge is expected to range from the Thames area down to Belgium. This includes low lying Holland. Hopefully Dutch engineering of dams, dikes, and other structures will hold better than they did in 1953, otherwise the possibility of a Katrina on a Dutch scale exists.
Stay safe, high and dry Europe.
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7 comments:
The Dutch dikes did not hold in 1953, resoluting in the loss of almost 2,000 lives in the Netherlands alone. Since then, the Deltaplan has created new dikes so hopefully this time we'll be saved.
See the Wikipedia article North sea flood of 1953 for more background information.
Thanks Yvette, the article has been updated
Hi, I justed wanted to say how much I enjoy your blog. Really cool stuff. So, kudos to you! By the way, I'm a geography undergraduate from Germany.
Cool, thx! I really like your blog and it's nice to see you follow up on comments too.
Anon,
Thanks for the comment!
Yvette,
Thanks for correcting me on my error. I greatly enjoy reader interaction. If you ever have feedback ranging from corrections to suggestions on future posts just let me know!
Ten feet (10') is almost exactly three meters (305 cm to be precise).
Three! Three (point zero five) meters! Uh uh uh!
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