On Feb 1, 1953.a storm originating in the North Sea hit the Netherlands inundating 150,000 ha and killing >1800 people. Prior to this in 1281, > 80,000 died and in 1421 > 100,000.
The surge of 2.7m at Southend also caused much damage in eastern UK (Alexander, 1993).
Alexander, D. 1993 Natural disasters, Chapman and Hall, New York.