14. In 1717, thousands were killed by a flood in Northern Europe
When Bing Crosby remarked how ‘the weather outside is frightful’, he certainly wasn’t referring to the tempestuous conditions that caused the Christmas Flood of 1717. That Christmas Eve, as Europeans were looking forward to resting in front of a roaring fire, the worst storms in the continent’s history chose to arrive. The storms hit the coastlines around the North Sea, causing widespread flooding across Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. Even the Netherlands, with its elaborate system of dykes and drainage, could not thwart the fury of the waves, and the waterways of the country simply added to the deluge.
Those lucky enough to have survived the flood were then struck by an Arctic wind that followed the waters like a valkyrie, causing a crippling frost to settle. In all, an estimated 14, 000 people were either drowned or frozen to death. The long term effect of this blackest of Christmases was severe. Entire communities were swept away, land ruined, and the working population severely reduced, leading to years of economic misery and food shortages. To add insult to injury, the Dutch government tried to avoid a repeat of events… by raising taxes to pay for new flood defenses.