A Dutch perspective on the flooding

From BBC's The World programme:

Holland flooding interview
Perhaps no one understands what's going on in New Orleans better than
the Dutch. A quarter of the Netherlands is below sea level, and
two-thirds of the country is vulnerable to flooding. In 1953 more than
1,800 people died when sea dikes gave way. Host Lisa Mullins speaks with
Bart Schultz who is a senior adviser at the Dutch Ministry of
Transportation, Public Works and Water Management.

http://audio.theworld.org/wma.php?id=08313

In the interview, Schultz noted that New Orleans levees were engineered
to withstand a once-in-a-100-years flooding event. In Holland, they
engineer them to withstand a once-in-a-10,000-years event.