Bostcastle Flood Case Study Flashcards
Where is Boscastle?
Boscastle is a small village located n the north Cornwall coast in the South West of the UK
What was the date of the Boscastle floods?
16th August 2004
What is a flash flood?
A flash flood is caused by heavy or excessive rainfall in a short period of time, generally less than 6 hours. In Boscastle, 7cm of rain fell in just two hours.
What is the potential causes of a flash flood?
Small round basin, steep valley sides, lack of vegetation, heavy rainfall over a period of time, impermeable rocks and ground already saturated
What were the physical causes?
Torrential rain an rising high tide, Hurricane Alex, high land at Bpscastle caused warm, moist air to ride rapidly and condense into clouds, 1422 litres of rain fell in 2 hours enough to fill 570 Olympic swimming pools, confluence of 3 rivers, land was steep
What were the human causes?
The street pattern caused surface runoff, cars and vegetation became trapped under a low-lying bridge. This acted as a dam, the old sewage system were overwhelmed by the amount of water
What were the social impacts?
84 wrecked cars were recovered, 32 were never found, 1000 resisdents and tourists were effected. There was no major injury or loss of life, 58 properties were flooded
What were the economic impacts?
90% of the economy of Boscastle is dependent on tourism, more than 20 hotels and B&Bs were forced to shut, infrastructure damaged to roads and services were predicted to cost more than £2 billion, 25 businesses were destroyed , Visitor Center and Museum of Witchcraft were severely damaged
What were the environmental impacts?
Four bridges were washed away. Trees were uprooted and carried downstream
What were some of the responses?
120 people were rescued by RAF and Royal Navy helicopters, local hotels offered shelter to many people, the Environmental Agency improved flood defences, carrying out £10 million improvements to the river and the area around it.
