Preface

Summary

The coastal floods that occurred on the weekend of 31 January and 1 February 1953 represent the worst natural disaster that Britain experienced in the twentieth century. A combination of wind, high tide, and low air pressure caused North Sea levels to rise and surge through sea defences, ravaging over 900 miles (1450 kilometres) of coastline between Yorkshire and Kent. Over 300 people died as a direct result of the flooding, which also damaged homes, industrial facilities, and infrastructure. Several comprehensive and authoritative accounts of sundry aspects of the disaster were published at the time. Yet the story of the 1953 floods did not receive a great deal of attention from writers for several decades thereafter. Perhaps it was felt that there was little more to be said.

Over time, however, a growing popular interest in social history and wider anxieties stemming from an increased risk of flooding due to climate change has stimulated a renewed interest in the events of 1953. Ongoing debates about how, and to what extent, low-lying areas of England can be defended from the sea have drawn on aspects of the human tragedy in 1953 to highlight current and emerging threats to populations in areas since developed on land vulnerable to flooding from tidal surges. Writers concerned with the politics of social responsibility have also questioned whether accounts of the bravery and resilience shown by survivors of the 1953 floods mask the fact that the British people were at the time inadequately protected from the risk of flooding due to a lack of foresight, expertise, and action on the part of central government. As a consequence, changing perceptions of risk and responsibility have affected how the 1953 disaster has been presented at different times.

In places where significant numbers of people perished, the social cost of the disaster has often been commemorated since with public memorials, and the experiences of survivors have been recorded in local histories. The anniversary of the great flood is periodically marked in televisual and print media, with the reproduction of black and white images of the event acting to highlight paradoxically both its separation from our own times and its relative closeness.