Today 50 years ago 1853 people died during the worst flooding the Netherlands had. In Holland we call it "de Ramp" (=the Disaster) and everyone knows what we are talking about. To visualize the victims see the list (this is no full list)
This all resulted in the creation of the dutch water defense system, which was built in Zeeland and Zuid-Holland.
I wasn't there, since I am 30 (almost 31), but my both of my parents had a completely different experience.
My mother was 8 years old when the flooding happened and she was right in the middle of it. She lived in a small village called Stellendam (in Zuid Holland). The island where she lived was struck the worst of all. 82% of the island was flooded. My mother still suffers from a trauma and gets emotional about it. She doesn't really want to talk about it and the information she gives is always the same. She probably has to much questions herself, so it is probably wise to talk to her brothers and sisters about it and give "de Ramp" some peace in her hart.
Nothing she can change anymore about what happened and she should remember she is a great person and has achieved a lot, without looking back on the bad times, since you cannot learn from that anymore.
My father lived in Dordrecht at that time (he was 9) . His parents (ehh my grandparents) had a suplly shop for cargo ships. My fathers experience is quite different compared to my mother. He even had a lot of fun. In the middle of night he woke up, because he heard a waterfall like sound in the basement. When he looked outside, he saw water flowing through the street and the shop of my grandparents was flooded with about 10 centimeters of water. He thought it was pretty cool, when he cycled through the streets and getting his feet wet (ehh kids like dirt don't they :). I don't think however that my grandparents were that happy about it, since there shop needed a lot of cleaning.
So his memories are of a good time.
The contrast is huge between the 2 stories (in my mothers house the wather almost reached the attick btw). One needed to be saved (she lived during the repairs in Soesterberg) and the other one didn't want it any different.