When the Dikes Broke

A fictionalized portrait of the floods of 1953 in the Netherlands, when the dikes in several parts of the country failed and the sea flooded back into reclaimed lands. Sanitized (there is worry about character death and at least one tragedy, but all off-screen), and with younger characters serving as heroes-- both the teenager who wants to leave the farm to become an engineer who labors "manfully" at rescue and at the dikes, and the (younger? older?) girl who searches for her missing aunt-by-marriage in a small boat.

Reading it in 2022, years after the floods of Hurricane Katrina and other climate-fueled displacements the resilience of the family and their neighbors strikes a somewhat sour note, but it's a 1970s kids' book. It's also show more true that pre-1950s housing was more easily reclaimed from water damage, but the farmers would absolutely be struggling to rescue their fields from the salt damage, as described in the book. show less

From cover: "How the wind blows tonight! As if it wants to tear the house up by the roots," says Tante Anna. But the van Rossem family isn't worried. Isn't their house strong and solid? And the dikes that hold back the sea--aren't they strong, too? That very night they waken to the shriek of sirens and the clang of church bells. They hear an even more frightening sound, too--the rush of water flooding the house. And then comes the cry that strikes terror into the heart of every Dutch boy and girl: "Get to your attic. The dike gave way!"