Belgian coast spared from storm damage

The governor of West Flanders has called off the provincial disaster plan for what is now being called the Sinterklaas storm, which saw record sea levels along the coast last night. Governor Carl Decaluwé lifted the state of emergency at 4.00, after water levels began to descend from their height of 6.33 metres – 23 centimetres higher than expected from computer simulations.

“There were no problems anywhere, thanks to the preparatory work everyone carried out,” Decaluwé said. “In one or two places, however, the sandbags proved their usefulness.”

In Bredene, along the central coast, a call went out for an entire neighbourhood of more than 2,000 people to evacuate. Only about 200 responded to the call by leaving their homes, and the city called off the state of emergency was over by 2.00. “Everything is now under control,” said mayor Steve Vandenberghe. “We measured a water level of 6.3 metres. At one point, the water was up to the level of the Prins Albertlaan by the evacuated Saswijk, at street level. Given that flooding occurs at 6.5 metres, you can see that we came close to a disaster.”

The storm was a result of the coincidence of the spring tide and high winds, and, despite the high water, the worst of the expected damage was avoided when winds backed down unexpectedly. A spring tide refers to the situation when the Earth, Moon and Sun are in a line, with sun and moon pulling in the same direction on the tides. A spring tide takes place twice every lunar cycle, when the moon is new and when it is full.

Winds along the coast were recorded at speeds up to 97 km/h at Zeebrugge and 90 km/h elsewhere. The last time the water reached the heights of Friday morning was in February 1953. High water at Antwerp stood at 7.24m above the average low-water point.

Sandbags had been standing by for possible flooding in Middelkerke and Blankenberge, but problems remained limited. In Zeebrugge, the water stopped rising 30m from the dyke. In Nieuwpoort, on the other hand, the water came up to the Ganzenpoot lock complex, part of the drainage system for the polder land behind the dyke, where it was met by a defensive wall of sandbags.

In Antwerp, high levels of the river Scheldt, caused by the situation at sea, washed over the Scheldekaaien, where parked cars had been removed on Wednesday afternoon. The river's flood gates were opened, which kept the effects of the high water to a minimum.

Some roads had to be closed in the early hours, while gaps in the flood gates were closed with sandbags. The Kennedy tunnel was closed to cyclists but remained open for other traffic. The city fire brigade received 75 call-outs for storm damage but reported no major incidents. “We’re talking about relatively minor matters like roof tiles blown away or trees threatening to fall over,” said Stef Breesch of the fire brigade.

High water is due again on Friday afternoon, to reach 5.6m in Ostend and 6.6m in Antwerp, considerably lower than yesterday.