The Netherlands was bracing itself for storm Eunice on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. KNMI declared code red due to dangerous weather conditions, the NS and other public transport companies halted schedules and the KNVB cancelled all soccer matches for that evening. Diederik Chevalier, president of Hockey Club Rotterdam, was sitting in his office in downtown Rotterdam that Friday afternoon. He looked outside and had high hopes that the storm would blow over, until he received a message from club manager Karianne Lagendaal around 4 p.m. "It's gone," Karianne wrote via WhatsApp, referring to Hockey Club Rotterdam's blowout hall.
War Zone
"I immediately jumped in my car to pick her up. On the way I saw that the city looked like some kind of war zone," said Diederik, who drove with Karianne to the sports park on Hazelaarweg. Upon arrival, he stared in disbelief at the havoc. Not only had Eunice completely blown away the blowout hall, dugouts had been blown away, fences blown over and light poles snapped. "I thought: how am I going to explain this to the members? We had purchased the hall, which cost about 750,000 euros, in 2019 through (bond) loans and all kinds of call campaigns. We all did that together, so that hall belonged to all of us. I was very concerned about what the damage would mean for the association."
Diederik and Karianne immediately formed a crisis team, which also had to inform the members. That was hardly necessary, Diederik observed as he looked at his cell phone. "Someone from the surrounding flats had filmed the moment the hall went up in the air. The video went viral on social media and my phone was full of worrying messages from our members."
Reassurance
Within an hour, Diederik also received a phone call from Piet-Hein Touw of Schouten Zekerheid. "They have been a sponsor of our club for years and because Piet-Hein is also personally involved with the club, the lines of communication are short. He said we were well insured and that they were going to take care of the claim settlement for us. That was quite a reassurance."
Because another severe storm was expected two days later, things had to be cleaned up quickly before loose material caused damage elsewhere. At the same time, cleanup work could not begin until the experts had assessed the damage. They were on the doorstep the very next morning. "Schouten arranged that super fast," says Diederik.
Last league round
Fortunately, the last round of the indoor hockey league was scheduled for the weekend of the storm. Those games were obviously cancelled, but the hall would then be demolished anyway in order to be rebuilt in November 2022.
"Before we had a bladed hall, we played with our club in all kinds of sports halls throughout the city. That was no longer possible to organize with 1,700 youth members, which is why we decided to purchase a blowing hall in 2019. Had the bladed hall been blown away a few months earlier, our members would not have been able to play indoor field hockey all winter," Diederik explains.
Rotterdam mentality
All the misery also produced something positive. Diederik noted, not for the first time, that Rotterdam's mentality is just fine. "Once there was a huge amount of snow, so everyone came in with snowploughs to clear the blowing hall of snow. Now we had help from more than a hundred volunteers who cleaned up the mess. Conversely, our members showed great appreciation for the professional way in which we had resolved the damage."
Because the claim settlement also went smoothly. "It turned out that we were indeed well insured and were soon able to order a new inflatable hall, which we were able to reinsure through Schouten Zekerheid ." Diederik therefore advises every club to engage a good insurer as a partner. "Almost all clubs, like Hockey Club Rotterdam, are run by volunteers who do their work temporarily. Then it is nice to have such a party as a permanent partner. Without good insurance, our club would definitely have run into big problems."
