Relief

Ten Boer and surrounding villages thank relief workers.

This sign is placed in Ten Boer near the road between Groningen and Delfzijl, to show our gratitude towards all the people that helped during the last couple of days with the high water and the evacuations. The line of trees in the background is where the Eemskanaal, the canal that gave us all so many worries Friday and Saturday, is located. This blip continues where my previous blip stopped.

Saturday morning it turned out that the high tide at sea was not very high so water could be pumped out to sea, lowering the water level in the Eemskanaal considerably. The pumping station at Lauwersoog also managed to pump out a lot of water, lowering the water level in the Lauwersmeer National Park.

The improvement was such that the people of Woltersum, the village that was evacuated on Friday, were allowed to return to their houses. At first only the inhabitants were allowed in the area but in the evening everything went back to normal.

There is still a lot of water in the area, but the levels in the main canals are now back to normal. In the coming weeks, dike inspections will be held and a plan for future improvements will be made.

Today is pretty much a normal Sunday. We visited my grandmother and after that we went to a restaurant to have lunch with my in-laws. Tomorrow it's back to work after three weeks of vacation. The girls will be back to school and swimming lessons and streetdance will also start again. I'm afraid I will have to get used to all that again...