Overview
- Deltares modeled an extreme event of roughly 200 millimetres in 48 hours based on the 2021 South Limburg downpour to map nationwide vulnerabilities.
- Parts of Eindhoven, Breda and Roosendaal could see neighborhoods inundated up to about two meters, with Roosendaal’s Watermolenbeek identified as a rapid overflow route into De Kroeven.
- Findings for Gelderland highlight Lochem and Doetinchem as high‑risk locations where fast streams, narrow channels and limited outflow to the Rhine and IJssel could drive deep flooding.
- A large exercise in Schalkwijk used Chinook helicopters to drop tens of thousands of kilos of sand and to test a sandbag dam near the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal under a 200 mm in two days scenario.
- Water officials warn that climate change raises the likelihood of such cloudbursts, while Defence called the Schalkwijk drill a rare chance to practice large‑scale flood response since 2021.