A storm in the North Sea has left Britain and the Netherlands facing the worst flood threat in decades with tidal surges predicted early on Friday.
Flood defences have been put on alert on the entire Dutch coast and flood warnings are in place for the eastern and northern coasts of Britain.
A tidal wave in 1953 killed more than 2,000 people in both countries.
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Oil platforms have been closed off the Norwegian coast and gales are expected in Germany and Denmark.
The Dutch transport ministry said this was the first time since 1976 the whole North Sea coast was under alert.
Maritime traffic in Rotterdam was halted, as the authorities closed the giant Maeslant barrier that guards entrance to the largest port in Europe for the first time since its construction in the 1990s.
It took half-an-hour for the two doors of the barrier across the Nieuwe Waterweg to meet, spanning a channel 360 metres wide.
Rotterdam will remain closed until 1700GMT on Friday, a port spokesman said.
One-third of the land mass of the Netherlands is under sea level.
Flood warnings
In Britain, the Thames River and Dartford Creek barriers are being shut as waters are forecast to surge 1.5 metres (5 feet) above normal sea levels.
Families along the Norfolk coast have been protecting their homes
UK government warned large areas of Norfolk and Kent coasts were at risk of severe flooding and the Met Office warned of gusts of up to 145km/h (90mph) for the Orkney and Shetland islands in Scotland.
The storm surge is expected to peak around dawn on Friday, and several hundred people have left their homes near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.
Severe gale warnings were issued in Germany and Denmark, with wind gusts of up to 125km/h (80mph) expected.
In Germany, regions around the Elbe and Elm rivers were under flood warnings.
The North Sea storm affected oil industry in Norway, the fifth largest exporter of crude in the world, with the closure of oil platforms off its coast.
Norway's oil production of 220,000 barrels per day is expected to be slashed by 10% possibly leading to increases in the price of crude, already at record levels, experts say.
NVDL: The UK is basically the world's canary in terms of climate change. It has thrived so far thanks to an exceptional belt of warming water being diverted towards its shores - we all know the schpiel. We know that polar melt will shut it down. Since ice sheets the size of South Africa (or Texas and California combined) have melted and not frozen back, it's logical to assume that it is only a question of time before the British Isles reverts to a more Ice Age type of climate. That said, perhaps we will first see a temporary phase of extraordinary warming, as we are seeing in Canada, and extreme storms, as is also the case in Canada (spewing tornadoes and the like).
Once again we have this apparently unique situation where the world's weather has an impaqct on global fuel prices, and that has an effect on every person. The next time you catch yourself wondering where you fit in, in all this, remember that every time you drive your car, you and everyone else is doing your bit to inject energy (heat) into the atmosphere. We're now at a point where there is so much energy in the atmosphere, that extreme weather becomes the convention.
Yesterday I submitted HOLIDAY to PanMacMillan. It's obviously encouraging to hear that one person who read my book, then read it again 3 times. Another woman who read it had nightmares. A teenager read it within 2-3 days. It basically paints a picture of living in the world where weather patterns have gone beyond tipping point, and we see the atmosphere basically transitioning into a slow chemical reaction.
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