FIFTY YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR II, SOMETHING LIKE BLITZKRIEG returned to Nijmegen last week. Dutch soldiers swarmed around the city while low-flying helicopters thundered overhead. Sirens pierced the air as police cars escorted emergency crews and equipment into town. The scenes reflected the kind of combat the Dutch know best: struggling with the elements. This time, in a country wrested largely from the sea, nature's attack arrived by way of the less fortified back door. At Nijmegen's Jan Massink sports center, a sports club where 350 evacuees had bedded down on the gymnasium floor, factory worker Jan Hooyman, 40, explained the...
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