1 Whole towns in eastern Netherlands were emptied of people Wednesday, for fear rising river waters would break through soaked dikes in the worst Dutch flooding in 40 years.
2 The Netherlands is bearing the downstream brunt of storms and flooding that battered parts of Germany, France and Belgium this past week. The flooding has killed one person in the Netherlands and 26 others elsewhere in northern Europe.
3 Up to 250,000 people were being evacuated from low-lying areas in the southeastern Netherlands, clogging highways and straining public services.
4 Soldiers were pressed into duty to reinforce dikes that barely contain the rampaging Maas and Waal rivers. If dikes are breached, some villages may be under 16 feet of water.
5 No people, animals or other signs of life were visible in farmlands in the eastern provinces of Gelderland and Limburg after thousands of residents fled with their livestock in any vehicle they could find.
6 Emergency workers labored through the night to reinforce dams near the town of Tiel to keep flood waters from bursting through into the surrounding farmland and villages.
7 Two Dutch sisters have died in the flooding. On Tuesday, the women, 62 and 52, were pulled out of the flooded Waal River, where they had been walking their dog along a dike in the town of Winssen. One died Tuesday and the other died Wednesday.

No people , animals or other signs of life were visible in farmlands in the eastern provinces of Gelderland and Limburg after thousands of residents fled with their livestock in any vehicle they could find .
fled
Where were these residents fleeing?