Boscastle: 16th August 2004 ; The Day of the Flood - Boscastle, Cornwall
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SMacB
N 50° 41.399 W 004° 41.717
30U E 380254 N 5616722
2004 book relating the flood of August 16th in Boscastle & surrounding areas.
Most of this book is a series of personal, often harrowing, but also courageous, accounts of the 2004 Boscastle flood.
Waymark Code: WMV5RN
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/28/2017
Views: 0
2004 book by journalist David Rowe relating the flood of August 16th in Boscastle & surrounding areas.
Most of this book is a series of personal, often harrowing, but also courageous, accounts of the 2004 Boscastle flood.
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: Truran (14 Nov. 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1850221936
ISBN-13: 978-1850221937
"The Boscastle flood of 2004 (Cornish: An Lanwes Kastel Boterel 2004) occurred on Monday, 16 August 2004 in the two villages of Boscastle and Crackington Haven in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The villages suffered extensive damage after flash floods caused by an exceptional amount of rain that fell over eight hours that afternoon. The flood in Boscastle was filmed and extensively reported but the floods in Crackington Haven and Rocky Valley were not mentioned beyond the local news. The floods were the worst in local memory. A study commissioned by the Environment Agency from hydraulics consulting firm HR Wallingford concluded that it was among the most extreme ever experienced in Britain. The peak flow was about 140 m³/s, between 5:00pm and 6:00pm BST. The annual chance of this (or a greater) flood in any one year is about 1 in 400. The probability each year of the heaviest three-hour rainfall is about 1 in 1300 (although rainfall probability is not the same as flood probability). At midday on 16 August 2004, heavy thundery showers had developed across the South West due to a weak disturbance to the northeast of the United Kingdom.
The last time Boscastle had suffered notable flooding was in 1996 as a result of Hurricane Lili, but floods are recorded in 1847, 1957, 3 June 1958 (one man drowned) and 1963. On 16 August 1952 the small town of Lynmouth, 50 miles (80 km) north-east along the north coast in Devon near Exmoor, suffered extensive damage in a catastrophic flood, in which 34 people lost their lives. Coincidentally, this was 52 years to the day before Boscastle's 2004 flood."
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My personal account of the floods is rather boring.... It had been pelting down for most of the afternoon, and as I drove home from work around 4pm there were a few deep pools of water in the roads, nothing too unusual there for a rainy day in Cornwall. When I did get home shortly after, I noticed the rain coming down in 'stair rods' for 5 to 10 minutes, then it stopped and all the drains outside backed up and 'fountained' 2 to 3 ft. Then the power went. The rain continued heavily, and there was some activity in the lower village area and I noticed a few helicopters. As it was really raining hard I did not venture out, and remained oblivious to the goings on in the village until about 10:30pm when the power came on again and I saw the events on the news.