Boscastle

[BrianJ]

Have seen some shocking pictures on TV news here about the tragedy in Boscastle ( sp ?) . Anyone on the BB live there ??? I presume it is on the coast . The report said cars etc have been washed out to sea . Is that right ???
Hope you are all OK
BrianJ

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[ships_parrot]

As far as I know nobody was killed, which is a miracle, houses contents of car park etc all washed all over the place. A similar thing happened in Crackington Haven at the same time, but not as many buildings were demolished as far as I know. They still lost half the beach and had cars floating off all over the place, yet barely a mention on the news...
Bude got close to trouble too - think I counted about 7 or eight boats sunk by the rapids in the harbour, but the town avoided major flood I think by having a wider valley and being able to let down the floodgates to get rid of it. I have a hunch that if they hadn't been able to shift it via the canal and the sluices in the sea lock as well as the river things might've been worse.

Apparently afterwards a dead cow and a goat were found in the sea pool, which should put the swimmers off a bit...

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[snowleopard]

about 20 miles from us, we were there a few weeks ago. 50 cars washed away, 6 buildings demolished and lots of property damage but no serious injuries or fatalities as far as is known. they are still searching rubble and sunken cars as there are several tourists who might have been in the area and haven't made contact yet.

the good luck was that it happened in daylight so the rescue authorities were able to put up 7 helicopters and over 100 people were winched to safety.

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[castaway]

Just checking my luck account.. In 1999 we got as for as having a house surveyed in what is called "Marine Parade" Boscastle.. It was right at the bottom of the hill and had one of the little rivers running under a slate slab at the back door.

For years I have regretted pulling out of the deal ( due to what the unrealistic survey turned up).... Now Im rather relieved !!!

Nick

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[snowleopard]

as usual the jokes start a day or two after the event. the latest offering is:

"britain wins gold in the white water rafting event, represented by two cornishmen in a transit van"

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[Rowana]

Also Scotland

Don't know if it made the news down your way, but we've had a landslip up here as well. One came down the mountain and washed away the road, complete with road maintenance guys lorry. Then when they were sorting it out, another landslip occurred back down the road a bit cutting off quite a few cars and people. Helicopters had to be called to ferry everyone out. Again, luckily, no one hurt.

We had the mother of all thunderstorms here last night. 20,000 homes had their electricity cut off. One of the guys that works at the same place as my daughter had his telly blown to bits!

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[MarkV]

There has not been any mention of how that much water ended up in one place at one time. As I understand it the similar event 50 years ago was caused by heavy rain washing fallen trees and branches into the river, this then blocked a sequence of bridges and allowed a series of lagoons to build up. Eventually one of thoes bridges fails and its lagoon rushes down and overwhelms the next bridge, and so on like a set of dominos. 50 years ago about 12 bridges were involved.

The moral of the story is if you live down stream of a set of bridges, check to make sure that they are not getting blocked.

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