Why is Britain flooded while Holland isn't?

[Mich the Tester]

Firstly, this is not schadenfreude on my part; I've suffered flooding in the past and I know it's bloody awful and I know it could hit here in NL despite the defences and water management. But it's been raining a lot here as well (weather from the west hits here just after it hits Britain and meltwater from the Alps ends up here) and in theory NL is the most floodable country in Europe, perhaps even the world except for Bangladesh. So why are we OK over here, and Britain is suffering such a mess?

[northernladuk]

Their dykes are good at holding back water... Ours obviously aren't

[tractor]

Firstly, this is not schadenfreude on my part; I've suffered flooding in the past and I know it's bloody awful and I know it could hit here in NL despite the defences and water management. But it's been raining a lot here as well (weather from the west hits here just after it hits Britain and meltwater from the Alps ends up here) and in theory NL is the most floodable country in Europe, perhaps even the world except for Bangladesh. So why are we OK over here, and Britain is suffering such a mess?

Because.....

Hans Brinker Puts his Finger in the Dike - YouTube SFW :P

[Mich the Tester]

Their dykes are good at holding back water... Ours obviously aren't

Wet and messy is a popular fetish here too.

[Ticktock]

Holland has been built specifically to resist flooding. It is designed to continually drain, otherwise it would be flooded every year.

Britain wasn't.

HTH.

[OwlHoot]

Partly because the Government (probably mostly Labour, although the Tories have put their hands up for some of the blame) decided that dredging waterways was a waste of money and cancelled a lot of this a few years ago.

I was in Umberleigh in Devon a couple of weeks ago, where the river overflowed its banks pretty badly two years ago. (It was on TV.) But having been dredged since then, the river was still at a safe level despite all the rain and floods elsewhere.

[Bellona]

I wondered that earlier in the week - Lack of flood defenses.

Really good (IMO) blog here

http://why-does-britain-flood-more-readily.html

[darmstadt]

Normally when I watch the news this time of year, you see the flooding is in Germany, Austria and Northern Italy but so far, nothing. If you saw the flooding along the Elbe last year, blimey...

[VectraMan]

Lots of flooding in Brittany too. It doesn't make the headlines here though.

Does the lack of hills make a difference to Holland? Their defences are more to do with keeping the sea out, whereas here we have half the rainfall of southern England rapidly running downhill into the Thames.

[d000hg]

Firstly, this is not schadenfreude on my part; I've suffered flooding in the past and I know it's bloody awful and I know it could hit here in NL despite the defences and water management. But it's been raining a lot here as well (weather from the west hits here just after it hits Britain and meltwater from the Alps ends up here) and in theory NL is the most floodable country in Europe, perhaps even the world except for Bangladesh. So why are we OK over here, and Britain is suffering such a mess?

Holland's natural state is flooded/flooding the whole time so some extra rain doesn't make that much difference?