And suddenly it was quiet on Steyl. The Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration, popularly known as the 'Pink Sisters', have been praying day and night for a hundred years. Bars and fences keep the outside world at bay. But not the Meuse. Because when the water came in 1993, the sisters had to be evacuated. For the first time since 1896, prayers stopped. Co-responsible for the evacuation was Wil van Horck.
by: Frans Pollux
ONE FAX
"It was all incredibly drastic for those little sisters," recalls Wil van Horck (68), "who never came out. But yes, now they had to. It was a crisis. "It was also drastic for Van Horck. As a civil servant of the municipality of Tegelen, he was suddenly bombarded as a crisis manager - "although it wasn't called that at the time". Managing the crisis consisted mainly of damage control. Prevention no longer worked. "We only understood that high water was approaching when Rijkswaterstaat sent us a fax that morning with predicted water levels. We saw newsreels and heard noises from Belgium, but things were not as streamlined as today. A fax in the town hall - that was it. And by the time we got it, it was actually too late. "Too late to hold back the water. Too late to build dykes. Too late to do anything other than take people away. "Even the Pink Sisters."
THE A73½
Barely two years later, the water came again. And again Van Horck was the crisis manager. "But we had learned from '93. So when the water started rising, we had a gravel farmer with whom we had good contacts come in, with excavators and all. And then we built a kilometre-long dyke ourselves. Oh, and because those machines threatened to sink, we had a completely asphalted road laid in no time. The 'A73½' we called it, after the future motorway that had been talked about for years at the time. "The plan worked, the dyke came and held. Tegelen seemed to be spared the suffering of 1993.
OPERATION PETTICOAT
But the danger came from the other side. "There was a large well in the Tegelen Maasveld. It was connected to the transport sewer towards Blerick, to the treatment plant. But that was flooded. So now the water was coming to us via the sewer. And time was running out. Serious consultations with the Ministry of Defence followed. Van Horck, Tegelen mayor Piet Visschers and alderman Jo van der Velden sat around the table. Outcome was a rigorous idea. "We wanted to blow up the sewer. Defence would drop dynamite into it, and then: kaboom. But in the end we were afraid it would destroy too much, so that didn't happen. "What did happen: 'Operation Petticoat'. Van Horck laughs heartily. "Yes, that's what we called it. Our plan was to stretch a giant tarpaulin over that well, and then throw all kinds of sandbags on top of it. So that that tarpaulin sank into the sewer pipe like a kind of inverted petticoat. It was exciting, but it worked. Although it caused a lot of trouble to get that tarpaulin out of the sewer again after the high water."
FEEST
Wil van Horck is still a bit proud of it. "We kept Tegelen dry in 1995." Except for a small part of Steyl, the Maashook. "But that spot still causes problems for the water board even now, it's just very difficult to do anything about it. "The battle against the water was won, and the Tegelen citizens were grateful to the municipality for that. "Normally the municipality is looked at a bit negatively anyway, 'those of the gemeinte', but now people came en masse to the town hall to bring roses. And there was a big party for all the emergency services in the Haandert."
WRAAK
Civil servant is no longer the retired Van Horck, but he still defuses crises. As secretary of the Tegel Passion Games, which take place every five years in open-air theatre De Doolhof, he had to deal with corona last edition. "No, that was not nice. Everything was postponed, we were allowed fewer visitors, financially it was difficult." And then came in the summer of 2022: the Meuse. "Yes, high water again. In The Maze, we were not at risk of getting wet feet, but many of our players had family or friends who had to be evacuated. That's when we decided not to play that weekend. With pain in our hearts. "Was it Meuse's revenge on the crisis manager? For his steadfastness in 1995? "I don't think so, but maybe it's another great storyline for It was Sunday in the South. Because next summer, water will once again play a starring role in Tegelen."
SUNDAY IN THE SOUTH
And that's in It was Sunday in the South, the spectacle musical about the floods of the 1990s. Made by Toneelgroep Maastricht - and by Tegelen. Because organisers and volunteers of the Passion Games are going to help make Het was Zondag in het Zuid en a success. "That's wonderful," says secretary Van Horck, "for me everything comes together. Tegelen, my past with the Maas, the Passion Games. Now only hope that the real Maas stays away."