St. Elizabeth flood
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The St. Elizabeth flood was a flooding of an area in what is now the Netherlands. It takes its name from the name day of Saint Elisabeth of Hungary (17 November). In the night from 17 to 18 November in 1421 a heavy storm near the North Sea coast caused the dikes to break in a number of places and the lower lying polder land was flooded. A number of villages (by tradition 72) were swallowed by the flood and were lost, causing (again by tradition) 10,000 casualties. Most of the area remained flooded for several decades. Reclaimed parts are the Island of Dordrecht, the Hoeksche Waard island and north-western North Brabant (around Geertruidenberg). Most of the Biesbosch area has been flooded since.