The Boscastle Flood

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The Boscastle Flood
Location of Boscastle
Boscastle is a picturesque, rural village, and is
popular with tourists. It is located on the
northern coast of Cornwall, in the far South West
of England. Boscastle is approximately 80 miles
and 45km from the nearest large urban area,
Plymouth. The village has two rivers meeting
there, Valency and Jordan, which come from the
high hills of Bodmin Moor. These rivers are the
main cause of the flood. The nearest main road to
Boscastle is the A39 .
Causes of the Boscastle Flood
Many things caused this flood, which is why it
was so disastrous. First of all, the rain. 600
mms of rain fell in just two hours, and thats a
whole months worth! The storm clouds in the sky
above the Cornish coast were extremely huge, and
the clouds were localised to Boscastle. The flood
was also caused by the valley shape. The valleys
of the rivers Valency and Jordan are extremely
steep, and the valleys are so narrow, they funnel
the water down to Boscastle extremely quickly,
which also made the flood worse. Both rivers have
their sources in the high hills of Bodmin Moor,
where relief rainfall occurs. The highest point
on Bodmin Moor is 420 metres, which increases the
speed of the rivers flowing downhill. The rocks
of Boscastle and the surrounding region are
impermeable, like slate and granite, which means
the rivers cannot sink far into the ground,
causing much more water to overflow. And finally,
humans must not build on flood plains! Boscastle
is on a flood plain near the sea, and it is
located where two rivers with narrow valleys
converge. So it is partly the fault of the people
for living there.
The village had two rivers meeting in it This
helped the flooding, and made matters worse
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The Effects of the Flood
The flood occurred on the 16th of August 2004,
and coincidentally, there was one on exactly the
same day, but 52 years earlier, in Lynmouth, on
the North Devon Coast (very near to Boscastle).
The effects of the Lynmouth flood were
devastating, but the Boscastle flood was less
serious. It was a calm, peaceful day At
Boscastle, until the rain came tipping down at
four oclock pm, and the rivers Jordan and
Valency burst there banks, causing floodwaters to
spread throughout the village. Approximately 1000
residents and tourists were affected in the
Boscastle flood, and the only casualty was a
broken thumb! There were no deaths at all, like
there had been at Lynmouth. 58 properties were
severely flooded, 84 damaged cars were recovered
from the harbour and lots of household furniture
and possessions were washed away to sea. Up to
100 people, especially the elderly, were rescued
and airlifted by seven helicopters. The Cornwall
County Fire Brigade remained at Boscastle for
seven days. A bridge was damaged, and the rivers
had totally covered it, allowing cars and other
objects to float over it. The severe damage to
buildings and properties cost up to 2 million to
rebuild. A lot of trees were also uprooted, which
could lead to more flooding, as trees prevent it.
People became homeless, and had to camp out in
the nearby leisure centre. The village was badly
scarred by this freak disaster, and jobs and
businesses were lost, such as hotel managing. The
village contained many historic buildings and
pleasant Cornish gift shops, but all were damaged
and taken away by the flood. Peoples lives will
be forever scarred because of this natural
disaster.
Cars were among the damaged property destroyed by
the flood
The bridge at Boscastle
What can be done to prevent future disasters like
this?
The Boscastle flood was a natural disaster, and
people cannot stop natural disasters from
happening. But, people can make them less
serious, by a number of ways. The river Jordan
has a new culvert, extending 80m into the River
Valency. This was done by the Environment Agency.
Apart from that, not much else has been done to
help prevent future flooding, except people are
more aware. This flood is predicted to be a once
in a 400 year event, so people remain fairly
relaxed about it, even though there is a possible
risk. However, there are possible ways which the
village of Boscastle could try to tame future
flooding. The channels of the rivers Valency and
Jordan could be widened and deepened, to increase
the capacity of the river. But this would mean
dredging the riverbed, a problem for wildlife. In
order to increase evapotranspiration, more trees
should be planted. This reduces the amount of
water that goes into the river, because the trees
absorb the water. A very huge safety measure
could be taken into action, but this has to be
thought about carefully. A dam. This controls the
flow of the water in the upper course, which
reduces flooding. But for now, Boscastle is being
recovered, and people are more concerned about
restoring their village. They can think about
taking action for future flooding after this.