Boscastle Case Study - Geography

Over 60mm of rainfall in less than 2 hours, typically their month's worth of rainfall.
1. The ground was already saturated due to the previous two weeks of which they had already had above their average monthly rainfall.
  1. The drainage basin has many steep slopes, and has areas of impermeable slate causing rapid surface run-off.
Cornwall
1. 2004
  1. UK
    1. River Valency
Effects
1. Many buildings were swept away
  1. Houses, cars and businesses were all swept away that belonged to over 1000 people
2. Income from tourism was lost.
3. No lives were lost, partly due to the rapid response of the emergency services.
Causes
1. The flooding coincided with a high tide, making the impact worse.
2. Boscastle is at the confluence (where tributaries meet) of three rivers - Valency, Jordan, and Paradise. A large quantity of water all arrived within a short space of time causing the rivers to overflow.
Responses
1. Major incident declared at 5pm.
2. RAF search and rescue were alerted to rescue trapped people.
3. Low bridges removed
4. New flood wall defense built

Resource summary

	Created by Jack Wildcard about 9 years ago