Watersnoodmuseum
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| Established | 2 April 2001 |
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| Location | South of Ouwerkerk, Netherlands |
| Coordinates | 51°37′03″N 3°58′58″E / 51.617441°N 3.982878°E |
| Type | History |
| Director | Siemco Louwerse |
| Website | http://www.watersnoodmuseum.nl/ |
The Watersnoodmuseum (or Flood Museum) in Ouwerkerk, the Netherlands, is the "National Knowledge and Remembrance Centre for the Floods of 1953" and offers an in-depth picture of the events during and after the flood of 1 February 1953. The museum was officially opened on 2 April 2001. The museum also educates visitors about water safety, and the museum collects global knowledge about flooding.
The museum is located in the dike south of the village of Ouwerkerk; it is housed in the four caissons used to close the last gap in the dike following the flood.
After the 40-year commemoration of the flood in 1993, a working group was formed under the leadership of Ria Geluk. In 1997, this group managed to get the museum project off the ground. A group of volunteers led by Evert Joosse, an architect from Kloetinge, started the Flood Museum in one of the caissons.
In September and October 2000 a trial opening took place with the intention of letting the audience experience what the museum would be like. The facility was completed the following year. On 2 April 2001 the museum was officially opened by Monique de Vries, Minister of Transport, in the presence of volunteers, sponsors and invited guests.
The Phoenix caissons were designed by the British in the Second World War to form Phoenix breakwaters as part of the artificial Mulberry harbours that were assembled as part of the follow-up to the Normandy landings, but these four reinforced concrete caissons were not used in the war. Instead they were used to close the last gap in the dike at Ouwerkerk in November 1953; these are the caissons that house the museum.
On November 6, 2003, fifty years after the closure of the last hole in the dike at Ouwerkerk, Minister Remkes declared the four caissons and the surrounding area a National Monument to the 1953 flood. In order to promote the interests of the National Monument, the Stichting Caissons Ouwerkerk (Foundation Caissons in Ouwerkerk) changed its name to Stichting Nationaal Monument Watersnood 1953 (Foundation National Monument of the 1953 Flood) and amended the articles of association. The surrounding area is also part of the National Monument. The creeks, a section of the old seawall, the reinforcements, the new seawall and the nature reserve surrounding the creeks all demonstrate the results of the flood of 1 February 1953.
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