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Events on Saturday 31 January 1953 1
1953North Sea Flood of 1953Storm surge devastates coastal EuropeA severe storm surge breached sea defenses along the coasts of the Netherlands, England, and Belgium, killing well over 1,800 people, most of them in the Netherlands. The disaster prompted the Dutch Delta Works, a massive flood defense engineering program. It remains one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern Dutch history.