Ah yes, flood defences. Indeed many are better than in '53 but living here in the Eastern region, our local rag is full of stories where flood defence budgets are being cut/withdrawn and defences not maintained with no plans for future maintenance and the like. I have a feeling it'll take another disaster on the scale of the '53 flood - with London being inundated too, for the Westminster village to get its head around just how devasting and dangerous floods really are. The Netherlands is much better prepared than we are now - this is a good thing for the Netherlands.
Another part of me can see why over-egging it can be a good thing - as the *risk* is very real - and it seems that as people are already being evacuated in parts of the region, that if the flooding happens, it's likely to be far less serious in terms of loss of life.