On this day in 1362, the German town of Rungholt was completely wiped away by a storm tide in the North Sea. Rungholt was situated on the island of Strand. It and neighboring islands now form tidal flats in the North Sea.
The storm tide, known as the Grote Mandrenke (Great Drowning of Men) was an intense extratropical cyclone, coinciding with a new moon, which swept across the British Isles, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and Denmark (including Schleswig/Southern Jutland) around 16 January 1362, causing at least 25,000 deaths.
In the Medieval Warm Period, storms were stronger and sea levels were higher compared to the pre-industrial average due to higher temperatures., much like today. An immense storm tide from the North Sea swept far inland from England and the Netherlands to Denmark and the German coast, breaking up islands, making parts of the mainland into islands, and wiping out entire towns and districts. These included Rungholt, in North Frisia, Ravenser Odd in East Yorkshire, and the harbor of Dunwich in Suffolk. The storm destroyed a total of 44 villages. At least 25,000 people died, with estimates going as high as 100,000.
Local myth has it that one can still hear the church bells of Rungholt ringing underwater when sailing through the area on a calm night.
Reconstructed coastline of North Frisia before the Marcellus Flood of 1362. The red line shows the present coastline that was formed for the most part after this flood.
(from: Wikipedia: public domain)
Follow the toothless people…
Today is the birthday, in 1959, of Nigerian-born British singer Helen Folasade Adu (Sade). She had the 1984 UK No.6 single ‘Your Love Is King’, and the 1985 US No.5 single ‘Smooth Operator’. Diamond Life (1984) reached No.2 on the UK Album Chart, selling over 1.2 million copies and won the Brit Award for Best British Album in 1985. Sade was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2002 for services to music, and stated her award was “a great gesture to me and all black women in England”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TYv2PhG89A
