1 If the waters keep going down, it looks like the biggest bill from this week's flooding will be for dike reinforcement to make sure there's less worry the next time around.
2 Interior Ministry spokesman Ger Bodewitz gave no cost estimate Friday while discussing the dikes, but the project is expected to mount into the hundreds of millions of guilders (dollars).
3 Swollen rivers burst their banks in the southern province of Limburg this week triggering expansive flooding. Soaked and weaken dikes also prompted Gelderland province to evacuate below-sea level polder areas.
4 In all, about 250,000 residents were forced from their homes -- the largest flooding displacement Holland has ever known.
5 Now that rivers are ebbing, the process of damage assessment has begun.
6 Reinforcement of the ancient dikes has long been a top priority in both provinces. But whenever the topic is broached, controversy is not far behind.
7 The project has been delayed by periodic lack of funds, ever-changing regulations and opposition from local environmental groups fearful that natural habitats would suffer with stronger dikes.
8 'It's a process that take years and we just didn't expect the water to go so high in such a short time,' said Willem Schoof, a dike specialist for Gelderland.
9 With the debate suddenly thrust into the headlines this week, evacuated residents are demanding that officials expedite the process.
10 Construction could start within months, according to Gelderland Province spokeswoman Elli Willink, who set the price tag at several hundred million guilders (dollars).
11 'We expect immediate action. The situation is very urgent,' she said, adding about half of the 530 kilometers (330 miles) of dikes in the province will need to be reinforced.
12 In Gelderland, which has narrowly escaped major flooding thus far, there have been major business losses.
13 Authorities evacuated major polder areas, shutting down much of the nation's fruit and cattle industry and as many as 16,000 businesses, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
14 The province's chamber of commerce estimated a loss of 140 million guilders (dlrs 81.8 million) a day during the shutdown.
15 It is still too early to estimate what kind of financial impact the damages from both provinces will have on the national economy, said Jan van Diepen, spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
16 'Both are important agricultural areas,' he said.
17 The ministry is drawing up plans to distribute subsidies similar to those doled out during the 1993 Limburg flood.
18 That year, the ministry paid out 40 million guilders (dlrs 23.3 million) worth of subsidies, shouldering about 65 percent of the damage cost for each firm.

Now that rivers are ebbing , the process of damage assessment has begun .
process of damage assessment has begun .
How does this process work?