The center of Amsterdam narrowly escaped flooding due to a technical malfunction that opened seven locks in the IJmuiden that hold back water from the North Sea. For about two hours, billions of liters of water flowed toward Amsterdam. The city was saved by the attentiveness of one water department employee. This was reported by NL Times.
The incident took place on November 2, 2023, but it has only just become known. That night, a storm with strong winds and high water levels raged in the North Sea as the ships were crossing the locks in IJmuiden.
At 03:52 a.m., the lock control system switched to manual mode, and all seven locks remained fully open. The reason for this failure is still unknown, but it almost led to a disaster, as from that moment on, seawater flowed freely into the North Sea Canal towards Amsterdam.
Almost two hours later, at 05:45 a.m., Rijkswaterstaat’s operations staff noticed that the water level in the North Sea Canal was about 20 centimeters higher than normal. They also noticed that the lock gates could only be opened manually, but because they were observing the readings from a different location, they did not connect the two events and attributed the high water level to the storm.
The measures were taken after a vigilant employee of the Amstel, Gooi and Vechtstrik water management department pointed out that the high water level was caused by open sluices.
At around 06:00 am, 14 locks in Amsterdam were closed to prevent flooding of the city center. At the same time, an emergency crew was sent to the lock complex in Eimuiden. At 07:24 am, they managed to manually close the lock gate.
Rijkswaterstaaf has taken steps to prevent a similar crisis in the future. It has moved the operation of the lock complex from the Oranjesluizen in Schellingwoude to the IJmuiden complex itself, so that Rijkswaterstaat employees can see with their own eyes if something goes wrong.
