Britain Braces for Huge Storm in North Sea

Britain and the Netherlands are bracing  for massive flooding tomorrow as a huge storm in the North Sea churns its way to the coast, BBC reports. The entire coast is under alert for the first time in three decades, says the Dutch Transport Ministry. The storm surge is expected to peak around dawn, prompting thousands of evacuations in affected areas, the Guardian notes.

British PM Gordon Brown convened an emergency meeting of disaster-relief officials to plot strategy. One government official likened the storm's conditions to those leading up to a notorious tidal surge in 1953 that killed 2,000 in Europe. "Anyone by a river, coastal or flood risk area must be prepared," said one official. (More North Sea stories.)