flood

Over 140 thousand homes in the Netherlands will flood during heavy rain showers. At least 76 thousand other buildings, such as schools and shops, are also at risk of major damage due to flooding, according to research by RTL Nieuws and consultancy and engineering firm Arcadis. 

Stormy weather caused a lot of problems in the eastern parts of the Netherlands on Sunday. Streets in multiple towns flooded and a lightning strike brought train traffic between Zwolle and Olst to a halt. Lightning strikes also caused a number of small fires, RTL Nieuws reports.

Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow warning for the eastern half of the Netherlands on Sunday, warning of lightning strikes and large amounts of rainfall. Some places also faced large hailstones.

At least 11 hikers were killed in a sudden flood in the southern Italian region of Calabria. They were in the Raganello gorge when a river overflowed due to heavy rainfall. Local reports say that one Dutch was injured, NOS reports.

Many of the hikers were dragged along by the strong currents. The victims include at least four men and four women. Two people are still missing. 23 people were brought to safety, of whom seven were taken to hospital.

A 45-year-old man found dead in a pool of water in Rotterdam on Thursday morning, seems to have electrocuted when his cannabis plantation flooded

Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb visits Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Bangkok, Thailand from March 8th to the 13th. Aboutaleb is scheduled to share advice on floods and climate handling in Ho Chi Minh City, speak about crisis management in Bangkok while visiting the port authorities of both, the city of Rotterdam revealed in a press release.

A total of 12,300 new asylum seekers were admitted to centers in The Netherlands in the first half of this year, which is double the amount that entered the country in the same period last year. This is the highest number of refugees coming into The Netherlands since 2001, according to the Central Bureau for Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

Although there has been a large stream of asylum seekers coming into the Netherlands over the last weeks, there is no shortage of shelter. Tented camps in cities will not be necessary to house the masses of refugees.