In the Middle Ages, farmsteads and villages were built along the German North Sea coast, surrounded by farmland and also floodplain forests. The houses were mostly built on dwelling mounds, protected by small dikes, and ditches were built to take out the water of the farmlands. In the mid 14th century, a period of bad harvests due to cold summers, corresponding hunger, and the Black Death in 1350, the population in that area was reduced by about 75%. As a result, the small dykes had been in a bad condition. On January 16, 1362, after more than 24 hours of severe storm, the small dykes broke and a great number of both cattle and men died. During that storm surge, large land areas used as farmland were lost to the sea, and they haven’t been dyked ever since. After this biggest catastrophe of the late Middle Ages in northern Europe it took a long time until new dikes were built to protect the marsh land. The new farmland was structured by a wide-meshed system of ditches. Dykes enclosed larger polders than in the centuries before, and farmhouses on terps were connected by narrow lanes. Still there was ongoing land destruction by the extraction of salt; however, the marsh land had also become an important region for farming. Another major storm surge occurred on October 11, 1634, again destroying farmland, farms, and whole villages, and killing cattle and men. The big (second)“Manndränke” is still the most known storm surge in history in the area of the North Frisian Wadden Sea. Major parts of the populated area were destroyed and the swampy land changed its face and became the Wadden Sea as it is known in modern times