2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-How the Dutch Mastered the North Sea?

When the floodwalls and levees gave way in New Orleans, the people of the Netherlands watched with special interest. 50% of the Netherlands lies below sea level, since medieval times, the Dutch have used dikes and levees to keep the country dry. Five decades ago, those dikes gave way in a storm, and the flooding killed nearly 2,000 people. After the catastrophe 2, the Dutch government built a system of dikes and sea walls designed not to fail. A.B. visited the see walls and she has this report.

In the southwestern Dutch province of Zeeland, the Rhine, the Meuse and the Schelde rivers meet the North Sea. It was here, in 1953, that the rising sea surged up the rivers, wiping out more than a hundred miles of dikes and submerging farmland/ and villages. 50 years later, three giant sea walls, known as Storm Surge Barriers, stretch along the coastline, protecting the fragile inlets and their dikes from the North Sea. While the mile and a half of barriers remains 3 open in normal weather, during a storm surge their 63 hydraulic-powered sluice 4 gates are lowered.

HY who works for the Dutch Ministry 5 of Transport Public Works and Water Management is in charge of operating the 20-foot-high storm gates. "About 5 days before we know some storm is coming, 24 hours before storm surge is appear, we will be at this place with a lot people, and then we check our water levels, and predictions, etc. And then, one moment we have to decide whether we stay open or are we going to close?" Yarher says the decision to close is a difficult one and the gates have only been lowered 25 times since 1996.

A museum near the storm barriers recalls the 1953 disaster with a film and exhibits. The museum also celebrates the Dutch response to the disaster, known as the Delta 6 Project, the 30-year, 3-billion-dollar plan built stronger and higher dikes and new sea walls to protect them. The Delta Plan seals off the country's coastline from North Sea surges and leaves only the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp to be left completely open.

In the nearby town of F Powder, 79-year-old retired 7 farmer Fred Bouhah, lived through the floods of 1944 when the British bombed the dikes as well as the 1953 catastrophe. He says, seeing what's happening in New Orleans makes him thankful for the system of dikes and sea walls that protects the town today." Of course we really remembered just how we have here in 1953, the currents and the storm and New Orleans people are living too below sea level, I think they need/ the same system as well as we have here."

Dutch began claiming land from the sea as early as the 1500s by building clay dams or dikes between two higher points. When the tide went out, the dike 1 gates were closed and the water was not allowed back in again, enabling the land to dry. The names of Dutch's cities, such as Rotterdam and Amsterdam reflect the country's struggle with water. This school class was one of many visiting the Storm Surge Barrier. Teacher A D says the dikes are a point of pride in the country. "It's typically Dutch so it's a must-see in our country. And especially with the actual news from New Orleans of course, this is a hot item, of course."

Sea barrier operator Y says storm records dating back to 1130 helped them build dikes and sea walls to withstand the type of violent storm that would only occur once every 4000 years. But with climate change leading to rising sea levels, Y says they are no longer sure about their calculations. He illustrates 8 the recent change in attitude by reading an inscription 9 on a plaque 10 dating from the inauguration 11 of the storm barrier in 1980.

"We control the tides, the moon, and the wind", it reads. "25 years ago, they thought they could control, and I think, nowadays, that's not true." Y says that scientists and engineers are struggling to take climate change into account. In the mean time, he says, the Netherlands will keep their dikes strong and continue to control every element they can, in the never-ending battle to hold back the sea.

From NPR News, I am A B .