Coastal defences under close watch

Almost all the dikes along the Dutch coast will be monitored because
of the storm expected over the next few days. The monitoring will be in
effect from Thursday afternoon already in Zeeland. A spokesperson for
the coastal protection service announced this on Thursday. After
Zeeland, Noord and Zuid Holland provinces were also advised to keep a
close eye on coastal defences.

The service is expected to advise Texel, Friesland and Groningen on
the dikes Thursday evening. It is still uncertain however whether the
water in these areas will reach the critical limit at which monitoring
is put into effect. This limit varies from area to area.

If the water rises above this limit, the water defence services conduct patrols along the dikes and check for damage.

The spokesperson says that January 1976 was the last time that all
coastal areas in the Netherlands were under guard. The storm expected
to approach from the North Sea will cause high water along the coast
late Thursday, early Friday.

Rederij Doeksen has cancelled a large number of its ferry departures
for Vlieland and Terschelling because of the approaching storm.

A spokesperson for meteorological institute KNMI says the
Netherlands will have some stormy days this weekend, but nothing
unusual for the season. "It is not an extreme storm, just an average
autumn storm. Throughout the country there will be wind gusts of about
100 km per hour. But that is not extreme. "

The KNMI does not expect to issue any weather alert this weekend. "I
don't think we'll need anything more serious than weather warnings,"
the spokesperson said.

Water levels along the entire Dutch coastline will be monitored
tonight for the first time in 30 years because of a severe storm at sea
combined with the spring tides, NOS tv reports.

Although the storm warning service says wind speeds will not be
particularly strong, a northwestern storm in the North Sea has caused
very high waves. In particular, northern areas are forecast to see a
four-metre rise in water levels.

Ferry services to the Wadden islands have been cancelled and the Oosterscheldkering sluice gates may be closed as a precaution.