@@AnnFBugit became a repeat as far as I recall. It was a light interest then suddenly became one of dramatic human suffering. Dawn French was involved in the later series presumably because she’d played a vicar
@michaelmartin9022 And every other person didn't have them. It was totally different times. A generation have grown up since where their 1st reaction when they see something is to get their phone out and record it.
My husband and I both remember it, and we saw it on the news. What wasn't mentioned in this documentary was the behaviour of the owners of the EMPTY holiday homes, who either didn't let people stay there or couldn't be contacted. We were just disgusted by how many empty holiday homes were available, but the residents who had lost their homes were not allowed in to take refuge. My husband has stated, that he would have made the doors open with a brick.
I lived in Cornwall for over thirty years... My first lodgings being in Boscastle. Last year I was one of forty odd people to be evicted from our homes on a site just north of St Atustell... Evicted under the DISGUSTING Section 21 clause... Due to the profusion of second and holiday homes in the county and extremely GREEDY landlords, who price their rental properties higher than the Housing Benefit threshold, coupled to a complete lack of investment in social housing - I was unable to find anywhere to live and thus was effectively exiled from the county I lived and worked in - AND LOVED - all my adult life... Wrenching me away from my support base, loved-ones and friends. And what have they done to my old estate... HOLIDAY/SECOND HOMES! And as it stands - I have very little chance of returning...
@@Deebz270 Suggest getting an (inconspicuous), like a Camper Van, or converted truck or bus to live in? They can have all the necessary facilities and be made comfortable and homely.. Your situation has a lot of precedent; so as do the numbers of people living in Vehicles, and meaning ok to live close to family and roots and so on.
When a government wiped out the Cornish Fishing Industry, and made small scale farming next to impossible - many went bankrupt - and many more need to be subsidised, to survive - the government recommended turning to tourism, and so renting property, that had only a limited benefit, and also made things worse for people in Cornwall, or good only for greedy landlords.
@@paulberen really well explained. Now the elite behind British government & world governments are doing the same to local farmers in Cornwall & Devon. Local forestry and sawmills and family farms and local animal markets & abattoirs have also been decimated.
I was working on the early shift at RAF St Mawgan’s SeaKing search and rescue squadron that day, the late shift took over and I headed home only to turn on the tv and see our crews in action over Boscastle! Made all the graft getting the aircraft serviceable that morning feel extra special, and hats off to all the lads and air crew on lates who worked non stop flying and refuelling all the aircraft as they rotated in and out of Boscastle 👍
I too was on a family holiday when the rain came down. We were 10 miles to the Southwest, it was the type of rain, so heavy and sudden, that we were all soaked to the bone after just maybe 15 seconds. I ran to our vehicle to fetch umbrellas while my partner hastily gathered our picnic and children from the beach, another family were doing the same 15 yards away from us, I offered them one of the umbrellas. It turned out that the people we had just met and were now huddling under the umbrellas with were near neighbours, 20 years later we're still best friends.
I was working as a plasterer on a high scaffold on a building set on a high hill in Launceston and for most of the day I could see a gigantic stationary black cloud hovering over the north coast. We were told the Launceston-Bude road was flooded, yet we were in full sunshine. Instead we took the A30 to approach Bude from the west. As we got a few miles from the A30 suddenly water began running through gates off the fields. We were still in full sunshine. Turning around , almost every gate had a river flowing from it by now. My mate's Dad who left site a few mins before us ended up stranded on the A39 for 6 hours or so as 8ft of water flowed across at Otterham Station. The thing I remember feeling the most is a creeping dread and the strangeness of it all.
We had a pre booked holiday in nearby Launceston after this disaster had happened. Major clean up had happened - all the debris had been removed but no repairs had started and all the buildings were still drying out. We had donated a chunk of our savings to the fund set up to help the residents and at the time we had no income but felt they needed the money more than we did. We briefly visited Boscastle and walked to the centre of the village. Standing on a pavement saw a childs miniature book stuffed into a hole in a stone wall. Examined it and put it back where we found it. Pavement was at the the side of a large area of mud. No fences or walls around it. We were really saddened by what we saw and were about to walk back to our car when a woman from one of the cottages yelled GET OFF MY GARDEN. We were standing on a pavement and had not stepped onto the mud at all. (Why would we?) I appreciate the feelings of that woman having been through so much devastation but her yelling at us was not appreciated or needed at all
@@englishmadcow7461 who said i was gawping? since it was on the tv and the intenet everyone could be considered to be INTERESTED in the plight of the people and the businesses. W have ben to Boscastle several times over the years as we have family in Cornwall and Devon. You are pretty rude assuming we were just there to gawp when we went to help support two of the businesses there by buying something
As a german this reminds me of the Ahrtal flood in 2021. I went there to help out with the clearing up a few days after, it was shocking to see what tremendous damage a seemingly small and quiet river can do in such a small period of time. Even now after 3 years you can see the aftermath
My brother, Raymund Rogers, lived in Boscastle at the time of the flood. He passed away a few years later and is buried there. I remember this event and his stories of it well - including his tales of cups of tea with Prince Charles when he visited. Raymund is also in this video briefly at 13:48 - blue and yellow shirt. Great video - thank you!
The thing is, the Boscastle 2004 flood isn't alone. The moment I saw the place, an earlier event sprang to mind... an event that occurred 50 years or so before. The Lynton and Lynmouth disaster hasn't been completely forgotten, largely due to the efforts of the locals to keep the memory of it alive. Then again, homes were washed away and people died, which, sad to say, makes the event more memorable. There has been a lot of debate as to the cause of the flood, with attempts to control the weather by seeding clouds with silver iodide being blamed. Whatever the cause, what makes Boscastle and Lynmouth so much alike is the shape of the land. Both villages/towns are at the bottom of narrow steep sided valleys, which will end up funnelling water from a broad catchment area into a very narrow space. Though many people might not agree, Boscastle got lucky, in that it was mostly motor vehicles that got swept away.
That and a key thing not covered is that both are at the base of granite moorland/ Tor's, which is why the valleys are so steep in the first place. Granite is a hard impermeable rock, it doesn't absorb water.
@@jamesgriffith5582 Since you seem knowledgeable, could you please explain what a granite moorland is. I see your point about granite's being impermeable, but I associates moors with swampy bog-like terrain. Are there moors on top of the granite, which would prevent absorption of excess water. Thanks very much for any clarification. (Do you know by any chance how common the dangerous formation described here is in the UK or in the world, and if there are efforts to avoid catastrophes in the future owing to such formations?)
@@starrbowie8649 Moors tends to denote any treeless upland area or plain the the UK. In many areas these can be or are associated with bogland. However often they are not, in the case of Dartmoor and Exmoor (the latter of which Lynmouth is at the base of).
"We are in danger of losing all of Boscastle and all the people in it" Dont think Ive heard anything more harrowing over a radio than that Thank You for this, learning about something so major and interesting happening before I was born was nice and the fact it found me is why we need more of this documentation
I remember watching this event on the television news...it was shocking just to see it on the tv so, my word, what it must've been like living there at that time... It looked absolutely horrendous. Here was (am) I in London, completely distanced from such an event... Completely shocking. 🤔🏴🥺😕😮😦
I love how in all that happened because of this, to describe how heavy the rain was Rod decided his waterproof coat not keeping him dry was how you knew it was heavy, my man has a lot of faith in waterproof coats
It would have been his Royal Mail waterproof coat. They are designed for all weather's. It would have been heavy to go through it straight away. He'd have walked many miles in the rain and been lovely and dry. It would have been a shock, that his bomb proof coat was now useless.
I sail small boats. I have coats so waterproof that I can capsize, be in the water for a full minute and still not have a drop of water inside. Perhaps you've only ever had cheaply made 'waterproof' coats.
True, an excellent record of the Boscastle flash-flood, and the crews from RNAS Culdrose - 8 Helicopters, are hero stars. And they do these rescues without claiming the costs - they are there for Military Emergencies, but do work for the public for free.
I really enjoyed this video. I'm 71 and I remember as a child being told of the flood of Lynton and Lynmouth that happened the year before I was born in 1952. Boscastle reminded me of this. Lynton and Lymouth are on the same coast line and about 66 miles away in North Devon which you mentioned. My parents took me on a coach to this beautiful place and told me what had happened and it has always stuck with me. Another terrible disaster was Aberfan in Wales due to rain in 1966. Keep up your good work.
@@bordershader Not to mention the sheer horror of the number of children who died (109 in the school - 116 altogether - plus 28 adults, including 5 teachers) . I was 12 when that happened, not much older than some of the children. It was (and is) a truly horrific nightmare.
That was revealed as a geoengineering experiment gone wrong after 50 years. And given the peculiarities with this flood, you cannot rule out a side effect of an experiment gone wrong (unintended transboundary effects), we dont actually monitor this stuff and it isnt really regulated www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/aug/30/sillyseason.physicalsciences assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a79751c40f0b63d72fc5fca/EIR_13-0107_cloud_seeding.pdf
Thank you Karen. I am 77 and I was on holiday with my parents, older brother and sister in a rented cottage away from the coast. My father's new car leaked and so did the cottage. I remember that we had to put pots and pans on the floor to catch the drops. We walked along the East Lynn River bank before the storm and it was unrecognisable after the tragedy. I seem to remember people being rescued by breaches buoy across the river from the hotel but I was very young; confused memory?
I was struck by the fact that the villagers seemed not to want the disaster remembered. Having been in Japan at the time of the tsunami in 2011, and followed the fate of so many towns that struggled to recover in the aftermath, one thing that stuck out is that the places where the memories of natural disasters have been kept alive are the ones which best weathered (pun intended) the tsunami. Historically, the tsunami high water line in some places was marked with standing rocks, and after 2011 in some places with lines of cherry trees, to make people aware of just how high the water reached. As major tsunamis have tended to hit the area every 50 years or so, this makes great sense. It's just about enough for one generation to pass the memory down to the next. The Sanriku coastline of northeastern Japan is full of rias, long narrow river valleys where many communities built at the mouth of the river, just like Boscastle, and when I saw the images of the cars being swept down in that black torrent, I was reminded of the opposite flow in Japan, as the cars were washed first inland, and then out to sea. The tsunami was the most videoed major disaster of its kind to date, and it is shocking to see see drivers caught by surprise kilometres inland, as they had no idea that the tsunami would travel so far over land. In Japan many communities that were totally destroyed have been divided, with some survivors wanting to rebuild in the same place their houses and businesses were washed away, with others wanting to relocate their town on higher ground. Bearing in mind that it some places, the water reached up to 40 metres, it makes total sense. Also, people can learn by seeing footage that shows how the water of a raging flood or a tsunami behaves, and just how fast it moves. I know one place that taught the school children "tendenko", or saving their own lives first, and as a result, there were far fewer people swept away in the tsunami compared to other places, some larger places that thousands of people lost their lives. ua-cam.com/video/wymX0J4G8r8/v-deo.html We should definitely remember, and learn.
All rescue and emergency services personnel who instead of running away run into danger to save lives. It's amazing what they do. Also if you go into the national trust shop above one of the doorways that have a mark showing how high the water was.
I was in Cornwall on holiday that day, we were headed towards Boscastle to drive through but the traffic was solid so we turned around. The rain was pretty biblical tbf.
I remember watching the news when this happened. It was so shocking and watching the footage again the shock is still there. At the time, I used to holiday in Cornwall so it was a place close to my heart. How nobody died is a miracle. How the village survived is a miracle. Such a unique village and so Cornish. That pilot’s words are truly chilling. I live in Cornwall now, such a beautiful county.
“We are in danger of losing Boscastle and all the people in it” gives me chills every time. I remember this day very well. I live about 30 minutes up the coastline from Boscastle and the sunshine one side of the hill/rain on the other is also so true, I can have sunshine on my driveway and rain in my back garden. We also have localised, thick fogs. You drive through walls of it like something from a horror movie, it’s wild 😂
Same mate, those words are just spine chilling, I remember it too,was living in redruth at the time,I'm in bude now and have visited boscastle a few times, it recovered well
Remember this well,how no one died I do not know, so very lucky, lived in Cornwall all my life further down West and yes we are completely different to the UK with our own weather system!!
Its just what the WEF want, weather modification to unleash these freaky weather events & blaing climate change, mass depopulation, innocent people are losing their lifes at the hands of the Evil globalists🙏🙏🙏😩😩😩
I was there that day. we had holiday in the area since 1977. I even lived up the road in Tintagel for a year. On that day we went to Trebarwith Strand with my young child we arrived about 10:30 it started to rain about 1/2 to 1 hour later and the car park attendant said 'leaving all ready?' I replied it's raining, he said its not much it will blow over. It was coming in from across Davidstow Moor. We left anyway. Trebarwith is like Boscastle a very steep split in the landscape leading to a beach but with just one way in and out with only a couple of buildings thankfully its river did not overflow or there would have been fatality as people would have had to scramble up the cliffs to escape. Any way we needed fuel and the nearest place was at the top of Boscastle. We got there and as we did we decided we would go down to get something to eat. As my disabled mother exited the building, after paying, and sat in the car the heavens opened. We decided to go back to Bossiney where we were staying to eat instead and wait for the rain to clear. My mother started driving up to the main road by the time we got there [just a few hundred yards], I ordered my mother to stop. As we were pointing in the opposite direction we could not see Boscastle behind us, in fact we could not see properly out the car windows at all. We started out again as the rain cleared a little and it was not until i went out to get bread from the site shop that i saw the helicopters. Looking i could see water poring out of Rocky Valley into Bossiney Cove, but it was not until 4pm that me knew what was happening in Boscastle. We watched the helicopters moving to and fro landing and taking off again. For the rest of the holliday we had to navigate the back roads away from Boscastle as the larger roads were needed for heavy equipment. later we finally got down to the village and saw the devastation for our selves. we had been there the day before the flood and all the shops and the visitors center we had visited were damaged. Shops on the left were washed through as if they were tunnels. How the rest of the building were standing i don't know. The rook shop had its rooks washed away and some of them were very heavy. The shoe shop lost its stock and the tea room we had been playing to eat in was badly damaged. We could not get down to the harbor fully as it was closed off [ we did the following year]. Had the Boscastle car park not been at the opposite end to the harbor in the valley, and the river which run aside the car park found surface before the shops instead of after the inn at, the bridge people and cars would have been at risk more than they were. Thankfully there are 2 road entries to Boscastle and the 2nd behind the car park was not affected, so cars could escape. Had we been in the low half of the village that day, I believe that my mother would not have survived due to her disability. Thankful I had decided we should go back to Bossiney instead of eating in Boscastle.
So thankful you all survived!! As a disabled gal myself, I cannot imagine if I got caught in something like that! Seven or eight yrs ago, it was nothing for me to take off on a road trip at midnight to see my folks 115 miles away, or my in-laws 185 miles away! But when your body fails you, even backing out of the driveway is a little disconcerting! Take care!
As an 8 year old in 2004 my family chose to have a family holiday in Cornwall, I remember it raining daily very well. The Boscastle flooding happened only a few days after we got home and I remember thinking "Of course it's flooding it rains all the time in Cornwall". Stumbling across this video has been an excellent lesson in what actually happened that day!
Excellent documentary. Boscastle was featured in a tv series called 'A Seaside Parish', which focussed on the vicar's role in the area (she briefly appeared here in the community centre shot). So not only was there the horrific aspect on the news, but to some viewers, we felt like we knew the people affected so it was doubly heartbreaking. Also the series went on to show how the village recovered, as well as Prince Charles visiting.
i remember this day! i lived in the village next to Boscastle (crackington), luckily most of the village was at the top of the hill i was at a friends house while the storm happened and my dad walked over to pick me up, and as we were walking back home, looking up i remember seeing so many rescue helicopters. my mum and sister at the time were trying to get back home from being in Plymouth and were very confused as to why all the roads were blocked, as for them, the day was a lovely summer day
Crackington... Where one of the steepest - if not THE steepest - roads in Cornwall is located. At low tide on the Crackington 'Strand' one can walk around an old Kriegsmarine 'E'-Boot wreck - it's engines being the only thing remaining... PS - Boscastle was the first village I lived in when I first moved to Cornwall after my sojourn in the RN and later Greenpeace.
@@Deebz270 i walked to where the wreck was quite a few times with my family when i was little, as the sea currents would always wash up interesting things along that part of the shore. Moved away from the village nearly 15 years ago, but miss it dearly!
@@Deebz270 A nod / appreciation for Surfers Against Sewage, (SAS), created in St Agnes, Cornwall, campaigning like Greenpeace for safe Seawater to surf and swim in.
Remember the day well. Was working on an MOD base close by. We were put on alert to take in rescued people and prepare hot food and drinks. We were watching the news as the flood happened but we had no rain just bright sunshine with incredible heat. In the end we were stood down. So glad there were no fatalities.
This was solid. It's also a reminder that changing climates could be bringing flooding to your area more frequently than it did in the last 100 years ... and that it only takes one flood, regardless of cause to change some things forever. Also, don't leave important stuff in your car. 😇
There have always been devastating floods in that area due to rain water running off the moors , Try doing some basic research that goes back further than a few decades ffs
@@tillyt4054yes, and I remember my grandma showing me similar pictures she took, in Turriff Aberdeenshire, in the 80s, flash floods happen in severe storms, that’s why the Met Office issues weather warnings if there is a risk, but climate change means a 1 in 100 year event becomes a 1 in 25 year event , or less, so maybe take your own words and do some basic research yourself. More severe storms more frequently less time for communities to recover in between.
Thank you for a great explanation of what happened. I remember it, I was a child and on a nearby farm at the time, at the top of the valley and it was terrifying. My mum was working in Launceston and didn’t believe us when we told her what was happening because it was brilliant sunshine and very hot over there.. thankfully it made the national news so told her to watch it.
I remember the flood when I was a kid! I'm from Plymouth, it's pretty close by to Boscastle an hour away thereabouts. I've visited Boscastle quite a few times in recent years and the area around it. At the witchcraft museum there they have the flood line to show how high it was in some parts. It's a great documentary you've put together, it's good to hear the stories from who were there that day. 💜
Yes I have visited the Witchcraft Museum since the flood and seen the water line marks. It devastated the museum, it is remarkable how many artifacts they saved from the ruin. An interesting place with much of humans history in the building. Loved visiting.
This is actually mad. You’ve reminded me of what was an emotionally crushing event in childhood, a mini titanic moment as such, which I’d forgotten. I’m remembering all the cottages and how beautiful I thought they were. I think I was mostly worried about the buildings looking back
Fabulously put together video, I remember seeing it on the news (I was living in San Francisco at the time) and thinking how horrifying it must have been to be there. I also really love how respectfully you did this, seeking out and filming only people that were willing to discuss it, and not being a shock-journalist about the whole thing. Well done all around!
Good old Culdrose.- always there wirh choppers to help with local emergencies......I was Wren at Culdrose working on Channel 2 in the tower....such an exoerience for a young girl - fell in love with Cornwall....so sad to watch these tragic scenes, bit still proud of the service Culdrose gave to local rescues......
Thank you for this very interesting story of an extraordinary weather incident and its long term consequences. A somewhat similar situation happened near where I live in a town called Ellicott City, Maryland USA. One of the first industrial sites in America, it was built in a narrow valley at the confluence of three streams to take advantage of water power. Some buildings were actually built over the streams. Over the last century the loss of forest cover above the valley contributed to two devastating flash floods. After the second, rebuilding was halted and the Army Corp of Engineers recommended moving and rebuilding the town upslope as the only way to salvage it, but the idea met too much resistance so now the town remains more or less in limbo. The Boscastle incident seems very unlikely to recur, but irreversible land use changes have doomed the once thriving Ellicott City.
This video made me think of exactly the same thing - there were sudden, devastating floods in Ellicott City in July 2016 and then again in May 2018. Business owners who had just managed to get their stores open after the first flood went through the same terrifying destruction all over again. Both times the rain was so abrupt and intense that there was no time to warn anyone, and since the town depended on tourism, both times there were people shopping and eating in restaurants who suddenly found themselves in danger of literal death.
And in the UK freak rainfall and storms are on an increase, so nowhere is really safe now, where flash floods and low lying places and narrow valleys are vulnerable.
Great video, thanks for making it. I'm Cornish and I remember this happening but I didn't know that much about it and it's really interesting to look back on it now, as uou have done 🙏 Great job 👍
Another good one thanks. It's always good when Tourism can return to disaster locations, but I can well imagine that some people can only take so many events; especially on this scale. And of course when more of the original residents leave, or are replaced; the spirit of that area can also change. I've lived in Fleetwood, [Lancashire] all my life. In 1927, the sea broke over the wall, and joining with the River Wyre, much of the town became an island. The Strawberry Gardens pub has a line marked, showing the flood level. In 1977, South Westerly winds and a high Spring Tide flooded the town again. And again, the sea met the river. Few will forget that Friday night either. The winds were force 10 and 12 I answered a call for volunteers, on Saturday evening, and by 22.00hrs, it was looking like it would happen again. Thankfully, it didn't, but a lagoon behind the sea wall was flooded, and seeping onto the road. I went home on the Sunday night, because of work the next day. I was a Groundsman on Rossall [snr] School. Because of the tons of sand and stones thrown over, it was weeks before we cleared it all. I saw things in people's home that were awful.. I sometimes hope I'm elsewhere in Nov-2027.
A great video. I remember seeing this on the news and thinking I hope no one dies and luckily no one did. How it looks now is a testament of british people to overcome such terrible events and to rebuild and stand together in helping each other get back on their feet.
I've just found your channel, suggested by YT. I've now subscribed. Very well presented, good amount of video from the time as well as you taking the time to go there to explain the lay of the land and what it is like now.
WELL DONE. I will see what else you have produced.....keep people humble. Mother Nature needs respect. These events are sad and could happen to anyone. Just look at 2020-22!
As a Nova Scotian, this hits close to home. A lot of our towns are similar to this, and with climate change, some are slowly being swallowed by the sea, inch by inch year after year. All they need is one bad hurricane to vanish.
Thank you for uploading this/making this. I have Two memory sets in my mind for Boscastle, Pre-Flood memories with the little Tea Shop along the left side of the harbour with the amazing Earl Grey Tea in Glass Cups, and the Original Harbour Light building as well as both the Original Mystical Place and its neighbour shop, The Other Place being there and the quaint olde-world aesthetic of the area, and The newer Revamped/replacement buildings of the Post-Flood era. I miss the old time place, it had an palpable magic to it, it still has its magic, just not as it was before.
I was here a week ago today and only just found out there was a flood there through this video, such a beautiful village that you'd never know it had such a dark history. It looks utterly normal 20 years on. That happened the day before my first birthday so I would've had no idea it happened
I live on the East Coast just south of Boston on the shore, the oceans in my blood. That geography of that land is so cool, it looks like a mystical valley with the tide filling that gap from the ocean, what a beautiful spot. Thank you.
You should visit some day, the two regions have a lot of shared history. You can visit the steps in Plymouth the pilgrims used before heading to Massachusetts
I’m in NZ but I have visited this lovely place. I felt for these people as I had my home flooded in invercargill in 1984 so knew some of what they had been through. Ours was not as violent as they went through.
I have almost no memory of this. Which is very odd when I know so much about the Lynmouth flood disaster, over 50 years before. I was born just a year after that happened, so it was still something you frequently heard about as I was growing up - we visited friends there when I was still a child and saw the aftermath first hand. And, then, in my early 20s, we had a holiday in the area and there was still plenty of evidence of the flood, even then. And there were still people living there who had experienced the nightmare firsthand. We visited the National Trust café at Watersmeet (like Boscastle, two rivers coming off the moor, meet at the top of the valley), and the people who worked there talked about that day in horrifying detail. A very similar disaster to Boascastle - very high rainfall over the moor (although the day before, in this case), two rivers in flood meeting, trees, boulders, jammed up against bridges, which then collapsed, sending huge, debris-filler waves pouring down the valley - and a pretty sea-side village at the bottom that bore the brunt of all that water and material. The main difference, apart from delay, and the sheer scale, was the absence of cars, as few people had cars then, and there were far fewer tourists. It's a sobering thought that one of the reasons Boscastle was worse, even than Lynmouth, was the number of vehicles swept down the river, and the secondary damage they caused. Feels like there''s a message there.
Until you’ve lived through a flash flood, you can’t even begin to imagine what the fear is like if you end up in the water. In Australia, we regularly have massive INLAND tsunamis. It’s unfathomable. They are always catastrophic AND deadly 😭😭
I went to boscastle on holiday just after lockdown. In the doorway of the witches museum there is a scale to show how high the water reached. It’s really eerie when you actually see it.
In Lynmouth, the houses along the river literally vanished, along with their occupants. The foundations, gardens, and their twisted iron fences are still there hidden among the rocks and trees.
me and my dad went down to newquay airport a few years ago to deliver some cakes and stuff to the coast guard just before christmas ended up spending nearly 3 hours there having a walk around and sitting in there helicopter got told some storys of this event + the longest distance search and rescue event that had ever been done from the uk shores. trip came to an end when they got called out was sat in the pilots seat at the time.
💜🧡❤Not just informative and fascinating but the scenery is just breath taking! For someone like myself who used to travel but is unable to even leave the house at times these days these videos are a life saver. Thank you. I am lucky as I managed to travel the world before my mental illness hit, others are not so fortunate. These days I am a virtual traveller so these videos are vital for my sanity!!!! THANK YOU 💜🧡❤👏
Very interesting subject to randomly pop up on my recommended. Appreciate the story telling, local interviews and taking the effort to visit the place. Look forward to seeing more videos from you.
My mother and I planned to visit Boscastle on that day. I lived in Cornwall and my mum was visiting. I wanted to see the Witchcraft museum and mum wanted to see the village. For some reason we changed our mine on route and decided to go to Lands End. We saw the storm approaching - it was like a wall and quite rough in Land’s End - clearly by the time it got to Boscastle it had gathered strength. We were so shocked when we saw the devastation - we would have been caught up in it for certain.
I was with my wife and 3 VERY young kids camping 16 miles away. I have only just started watching the video so I have no idea if you are going to mention the lightening that happened... I know it did cause I witnessed it .. .strike after strike after strike... it was frightening..
The museum of witchcraft there has a tide line in their main entrance room that shows the depth of the water on that day. They also have a lifesize model of a witch woman, that was seen floating down the river on that day. It was believed at first to be a casualty, until they realised what it was.
RAF Culdrose are amazing, in 1989 i fell around 250ft off a cliff further down the coast at Kenidjack castle outside St Just, 10 rescue climbers couldn't get me out as I had bounced into an alcove, the helicopter pilot was amazing I was told, as I was unconscious so no memory of my only helicopter ride and he had to come in at an angle well close to the cliff face.
Man I remember this well, I left the Cobweb inn after an early lunch after walking our dogs up the the lookout and back to eat, I knew nothing about this until I was doing some DIY and a radio was on and we heard of the disaster as an emergency broadcast, only the fact I wanted to finish a project at my girlfriends cottage in Badgall, otherwise we may have still been wondering around the village.
What an absolutely beautiful little village. In the desert 🏜, we have dry riverbeds. But ever few years, during the monsoon, they'll flood. "Once a river, always a river." Don't ever build in a riverbed.😢
Sadly there were some fatalities, a couple of dogs that their owners had left in cars whilst they were going to get parking tickets and maps from the visitors centre. 😞 And a number of local cats also disappeared after this day.
You'd be amazed at how far fire appliances were called to the scene, we're 40 miles away and one of our pumps was called. Good over view but I wish you'd left the 'England' out Cornwall is a Duchy.
@@MsPinkwolf Genetically and culturally different, it's less geographically joined to England than both Scotland and Wales, the border being all bar the last three miles made of water. 🙂
@@MsPinkwolf I think you'll find if you do a deep dive it has never been formally incorporated. The word 'county' was adopted in the Victorian era. No other 'county' has different laws and no other 'county's' status within the UK cannot be commented on in Parliament. It's a Duchy and protectorate of the UK. The crown has no authority other than that granted by the duke.
I remember seeing this on the news. I would have only been 8 at the time but we live 50 miles down the coast. I remember my mum crying watching the report but I didn’t fully understand it until a few years later. Days later I remember my dad heading off to help with repairs in his own time
I am terribly sorry for those inhabitants that suffer several damages in their health and the lost of their belongings. My condolences to all of them, and specially to the eldest that can not find a job because of their seniority, so they can not access to new salary resources to rebuilt their lives, and also to the widows and children. My humble opinion is that there is a cycle of a brave Sun shining such as we never have seen. The activity of the Solar Spots, like tremendous fire tongues that come to the Earth. Also the elektro---magnetic activity from the beyond. Apart from that, the NiFe (Magmatic Niquel-Ferrum), that is the center of the Earth is having a tremendous activity (see the earthquakes, maremotos, the vulcanism and so on). It is such as if a pressure caldron were heated both by the up-wards and by the back-wards... So there are more evaporation of the waters and more huge showers. Also, of course, there are some human non-desire interventions made many, many years before but with now a day consequences such as the nuclear detonations of France in the Pacific Ocean, the ones made in the Arctic Circle by the Russians and, of course, those made by the Chinese and its allies. What a mess, what a disaster. And it will be in an increasing scale... God and the Angels might protect us, and guide to better lands for a nice living in peace. Might OLJC bless you. Many thanks for this short documental movie.
The footage of the Boscastle flash floods reminds me of the 2004 Indonesia tsunami, which happened later that year. Both showed the overwhelming power of water and the devastation it caused
Interesting that it was in 2004. In New Zealand I lived in an area that had terrible flooding. The town Feilding had a river on all 5 exits to the town. We were trapped. Houses were swamped.
I live over in Devon, and i went there once with my family back in 2016 while on holiday in Bude. Quite sad to see what happened to be honest, I saw a lot of things about the flood while I was there.
Boscastle was not a unique event. 52 years earlier, to the day, a worse disaster occurred at Lynmouth, North Devon. Same topography: a steep sided valley with two rivers converging upstream, together with exceptionally heavy rainfall on the higher ground inland. Nobody died at Boscastle. At Lynmouth 34 people perished.
Cobweb Inn takes me back 60 years :-) Used to be a little old lady playing the piano , she was the heart of the place . Heavily made up white face , looked like one of those elfin Cornish folk :-)
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A documentary crew was filming a series about the vicar here, which is why there's so much as-it-happed good quality footage.
Right. Because no one had smart phones back then. It's crazy how fast things have changed.
We watched it. It was a good series.
@@MsPinkwolf Phones that could take video existed, but the quality was usually terrible
@@AnnFBugit became a repeat as far as I recall. It was a light interest then suddenly became one of dramatic human suffering. Dawn French was involved in the later series presumably because she’d played a vicar
@michaelmartin9022 And every other person didn't have them. It was totally different times. A generation have grown up since where their 1st reaction when they see something is to get their phone out and record it.
My husband and I both remember it, and we saw it on the news. What wasn't mentioned in this documentary was the behaviour of the owners of the EMPTY holiday homes, who either didn't let people stay there or couldn't be contacted. We were just disgusted by how many empty holiday homes were available, but the residents who had lost their homes were not allowed in to take refuge. My husband has stated, that he would have made the doors open with a brick.
I lived in Cornwall for over thirty years... My first lodgings being in Boscastle. Last year I was one of forty odd people to be evicted from our homes on a site just north of St Atustell... Evicted under the DISGUSTING Section 21 clause... Due to the profusion of second and holiday homes in the county and extremely GREEDY landlords, who price their rental properties higher than the Housing Benefit threshold, coupled to a complete lack of investment in social housing - I was unable to find anywhere to live and thus was effectively exiled from the county I lived and worked in - AND LOVED - all my adult life... Wrenching me away from my support base, loved-ones and friends. And what have they done to my old estate... HOLIDAY/SECOND HOMES!
And as it stands - I have very little chance of returning...
A Cornish version of Sons of Glyndŵr could address the invasion of empty homes due to holiday & Airbnb owners: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meibion_Glyndŵr
@@Deebz270 Suggest getting an (inconspicuous), like a Camper Van, or converted truck or bus to live in?
They can have all the necessary facilities and be made comfortable and homely.. Your situation has a lot of precedent; so as do the numbers of people living in Vehicles, and meaning ok to live close to family and roots and so on.
When a government wiped out the Cornish Fishing Industry, and made small scale farming next to impossible - many went bankrupt - and many more need to be subsidised, to survive - the government recommended turning to tourism, and so renting property, that had only a limited benefit, and also made things worse for people in Cornwall, or good only for greedy landlords.
@@paulberen really well explained. Now the elite behind British government & world governments are doing the same to local farmers in Cornwall & Devon. Local forestry and sawmills and family farms and local animal markets & abattoirs have also been decimated.
I was working on the early shift at RAF St Mawgan’s SeaKing search and rescue squadron that day, the late shift took over and I headed home only to turn on the tv and see our crews in action over Boscastle! Made all the graft getting the aircraft serviceable that morning feel extra special, and hats off to all the lads and air crew on lates who worked non stop flying and refuelling all the aircraft as they rotated in and out of Boscastle 👍
I too was on a family holiday when the rain came down. We were 10 miles to the Southwest, it was the type of rain, so heavy and sudden, that we were all soaked to the bone after just maybe 15 seconds. I ran to our vehicle to fetch umbrellas while my partner hastily gathered our picnic and children from the beach, another family were doing the same 15 yards away from us, I offered them one of the umbrellas. It turned out that the people we had just met and were now huddling under the umbrellas with were near neighbours, 20 years later we're still best friends.
Rains like that near daily for months at a time around my home. A flooding rain would be 22-28 inches in a day.
Thats awesome, but how did you manage to keep the brollys up😁😁
@@chrisleblanc581and where are you if i may ask😊
I was working as a plasterer on a high scaffold on a building set on a high hill in Launceston and for most of the day I could see a gigantic stationary black cloud hovering over the north coast. We were told the Launceston-Bude road was flooded, yet we were in full sunshine. Instead we took the A30 to approach Bude from the west.
As we got a few miles from the A30 suddenly water began running through gates off the fields. We were still in full sunshine. Turning around , almost every gate had a river flowing from it by now. My mate's Dad who left site a few mins before us ended up stranded on the A39 for 6 hours or so as 8ft of water flowed across at Otterham Station.
The thing I remember feeling the most is a creeping dread and the strangeness of it all.
We had a pre booked holiday in nearby Launceston after this disaster had happened. Major clean up had happened - all the debris had been removed but no repairs had started and all the buildings were still drying out. We had donated a chunk of our savings to the fund set up to help the residents and at the time we had no income but felt they needed the money more than we did. We briefly visited Boscastle and walked to the centre of the village. Standing on a pavement saw a childs miniature book stuffed into a hole in a stone wall. Examined it and put it back where we found it. Pavement was at the the side of a large area of mud. No fences or walls around it. We were really saddened by what we saw and were about to walk back to our car when a woman from one of the cottages yelled GET OFF MY GARDEN. We were standing on a pavement and had not stepped onto the mud at all. (Why would we?) I appreciate the feelings of that woman having been through so much devastation but her yelling at us was not appreciated or needed at all
@@Jan-sn5tkmaybe stay away from affected areas instead of gawping. Absolutely nothing you could offer in terms of help.
@@englishmadcow7461 who said i was gawping? since it was on the tv and the intenet everyone could be considered to be INTERESTED in the plight of the people and the businesses. W have ben to Boscastle several times over the years as we have family in Cornwall and Devon. You are pretty rude assuming we were just there to gawp when we went to help support two of the businesses there by buying something
Weather modification, all Engineered, causing lifes to be lost, & the rich to gain off the dead🙏🙏
As a german this reminds me of the Ahrtal flood in 2021. I went there to help out with the clearing up a few days after, it was shocking to see what tremendous damage a seemingly small and quiet river can do in such a small period of time. Even now after 3 years you can see the aftermath
Thanks for helping the people in 2021. I have friends there.
I have to think back to the 2002 flood.
I recall seeing the 2011 Toowomba flood(and grantham below Toowomba).
My brother, Raymund Rogers, lived in Boscastle at the time of the flood. He passed away a few years later and is buried there. I remember this event and his stories of it well - including his tales of cups of tea with Prince Charles when he visited. Raymund is also in this video briefly at 13:48 - blue and yellow shirt.
Great video - thank you!
I just saw him...helping!
The thing is, the Boscastle 2004 flood isn't alone. The moment I saw the place, an earlier event sprang to mind... an event that occurred 50 years or so before.
The Lynton and Lynmouth disaster hasn't been completely forgotten, largely due to the efforts of the locals to keep the memory of it alive. Then again, homes were washed away and people died, which, sad to say, makes the event more memorable. There has been a lot of debate as to the cause of the flood, with attempts to control the weather by seeding clouds with silver iodide being blamed.
Whatever the cause, what makes Boscastle and Lynmouth so much alike is the shape of the land. Both villages/towns are at the bottom of narrow steep sided valleys, which will end up funnelling water from a broad catchment area into a very narrow space. Though many people might not agree, Boscastle got lucky, in that it was mostly motor vehicles that got swept away.
That and a key thing not covered is that both are at the base of granite moorland/ Tor's, which is why the valleys are so steep in the first place. Granite is a hard impermeable rock, it doesn't absorb water.
@LeeGee It was the 70s. How long do you think greenhouse gas emissions and climate change have been a thing?
It happened in Boscastle before in the 60's and a policeman was killed.
@@jamesgriffith5582 Since you seem knowledgeable, could you please explain what a granite moorland is. I see your point about granite's being impermeable, but I associates moors with swampy bog-like terrain. Are there moors on top of the granite, which would prevent absorption of excess water. Thanks very much for any clarification. (Do you know by any chance how common the dangerous formation described here is in the UK or in the world, and if there are efforts to avoid catastrophes in the future owing to such formations?)
@@starrbowie8649 Moors tends to denote any treeless upland area or plain the the UK. In many areas these can be or are associated with bogland. However often they are not, in the case of Dartmoor and Exmoor (the latter of which Lynmouth is at the base of).
"We are in danger of losing all of Boscastle and all the people in it" Dont think Ive heard anything more harrowing over a radio than that
Thank You for this, learning about something so major and interesting happening before I was born was nice and the fact it found me is why we need more of this documentation
I remember watching this event on the television news...it was shocking just to see it on the tv so, my word, what it must've been like living there at that time... It looked absolutely horrendous. Here was (am) I in London, completely distanced from such an event...
Completely shocking. 🤔🏴🥺😕😮😦
A documentary on both the Lynmouth and Boscastle floods has been on tv a few times. The last one was two weeks ago. Fascinating to watch.
I love how in all that happened because of this, to describe how heavy the rain was Rod decided his waterproof coat not keeping him dry was how you knew it was heavy, my man has a lot of faith in waterproof coats
It would have been his Royal Mail waterproof coat. They are designed for all weather's. It would have been heavy to go through it straight away. He'd have walked many miles in the rain and been lovely and dry.
It would have been a shock, that his bomb proof coat was now useless.
I sail small boats. I have coats so waterproof that I can capsize, be in the water for a full minute and still not have a drop of water inside. Perhaps you've only ever had cheaply made 'waterproof' coats.
there is no bad weather, only wrong clothing
This I historical record, not just a youtube video.
Great work, documenting all this is valuable .
The Flying by the Helicopter Pilots and Crews were STUNNING..
True, an excellent record of the Boscastle flash-flood, and the crews from RNAS Culdrose - 8 Helicopters, are hero stars. And they do these rescues without claiming the costs - they are there for Military Emergencies, but do work for the public for free.
My friend lives in Boscastle and her tale of the floods with her family is haunting..
The sheer amount of footage you collected before smartphones is mind blowing 🤯
There was a bbc crew there filming a documentary at the time.
3g video phones existed by then as did digital camcorders and cameras
I really enjoyed this video. I'm 71 and I remember as a child being told of the flood of Lynton and Lynmouth that happened the year before I was born in 1952. Boscastle reminded me of this. Lynton and Lymouth are on the same coast line and about 66 miles away in North Devon which you mentioned. My parents took me on a coach to this beautiful place and told me what had happened and it has always stuck with me. Another terrible disaster was Aberfan in Wales due to rain in 1966. Keep up your good work.
Aberfan was all the more shocking because people had been warning for years about the potential for the spoil heap to slip.
@@bordershader Not to mention the sheer horror of the number of children who died (109 in the school - 116 altogether - plus 28 adults, including 5 teachers) . I was 12 when that happened, not much older than some of the children. It was (and is) a truly horrific nightmare.
That was revealed as a geoengineering experiment gone wrong after 50 years. And given the peculiarities with this flood, you cannot rule out a side effect of an experiment gone wrong (unintended transboundary effects), we dont actually monitor this stuff and it isnt really regulated www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/aug/30/sillyseason.physicalsciences
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a79751c40f0b63d72fc5fca/EIR_13-0107_cloud_seeding.pdf
Thank you Karen. I am 77 and I was on holiday with my parents, older brother and sister in a rented cottage away from the coast. My father's new car leaked and so did the cottage. I remember that we had to put pots and pans on the floor to catch the drops.
We walked along the East Lynn River bank before the storm and it was unrecognisable after the tragedy. I seem to remember people being rescued by breaches buoy across the river from the hotel but I was very young; confused memory?
I thought Aberfan was burried due to the mines, not floods!
I was struck by the fact that the villagers seemed not to want the disaster remembered. Having been in Japan at the time of the tsunami in 2011, and followed the fate of so many towns that struggled to recover in the aftermath, one thing that stuck out is that the places where the memories of natural disasters have been kept alive are the ones which best weathered (pun intended) the tsunami. Historically, the tsunami high water line in some places was marked with standing rocks, and after 2011 in some places with lines of cherry trees, to make people aware of just how high the water reached. As major tsunamis have tended to hit the area every 50 years or so, this makes great sense. It's just about enough for one generation to pass the memory down to the next.
The Sanriku coastline of northeastern Japan is full of rias, long narrow river valleys where many communities built at the mouth of the river, just like Boscastle, and when I saw the images of the cars being swept down in that black torrent, I was reminded of the opposite flow in Japan, as the cars were washed first inland, and then out to sea. The tsunami was the most videoed major disaster of its kind to date, and it is shocking to see see drivers caught by surprise kilometres inland, as they had no idea that the tsunami would travel so far over land.
In Japan many communities that were totally destroyed have been divided, with some survivors wanting to rebuild in the same place their houses and businesses were washed away, with others wanting to relocate their town on higher ground. Bearing in mind that it some places, the water reached up to 40 metres, it makes total sense.
Also, people can learn by seeing footage that shows how the water of a raging flood or a tsunami behaves, and just how fast it moves. I know one place that taught the school children "tendenko", or saving their own lives first, and as a result, there were far fewer people swept away in the tsunami compared to other places, some larger places that thousands of people lost their lives.
ua-cam.com/video/wymX0J4G8r8/v-deo.html
We should definitely remember, and learn.
I am staggered
by how few died in Japan.
/
All rescue and emergency services personnel who instead of running away run into danger to save lives. It's amazing what they do.
Also if you go into the national trust shop above one of the doorways that have a mark showing how high the water was.
I was in Cornwall on holiday that day, we were headed towards Boscastle to drive through but the traffic was solid so we turned around. The rain was pretty biblical tbf.
I remember watching the news when this happened. It was so shocking and watching the footage again the shock is still there. At the time, I used to holiday in Cornwall so it was a place close to my heart. How nobody died is a miracle. How the village survived is a miracle. Such a unique village and so Cornish. That pilot’s words are truly chilling. I live in Cornwall now, such a beautiful county.
“We are in danger of losing Boscastle and all the people in it” gives me chills every time. I remember this day very well.
I live about 30 minutes up the coastline from Boscastle and the sunshine one side of the hill/rain on the other is also so true, I can have sunshine on my driveway and rain in my back garden. We also have localised, thick fogs. You drive through walls of it like something from a horror movie, it’s wild 😂
Does the fog habe a name where you are? In SF, California we named it Karl.
I’d forgotten this. It was horrific. I was like 6 and even then it hit home
Same mate, those words are just spine chilling, I remember it too,was living in redruth at the time,I'm in bude now and have visited boscastle a few times, it recovered well
Remember this well,how no one died I do not know, so very lucky, lived in Cornwall all my life further down West and yes we are completely different to the UK with our own weather system!!
@@thebonsaiprojectkernow I’m in Kilk ☺️
From someone who lives in Cornwall, I remember in a geography class we actually learnt about Boscastle and even visited it I believe
I'm watching this the day after the flash floods in Spain....95 dead so far in Spain RIP.
Its just what the WEF want, weather modification to unleash these freaky weather events & blaing climate change, mass depopulation, innocent people are losing their lifes at the hands of the Evil globalists🙏🙏🙏😩😩😩
During my geology degree in Brighton, we were taught about Bostcastle still as part of understanding just how important understanding flooding is
I was there that day. we had holiday in the area since 1977. I even lived up the road in Tintagel for a year. On that day we went to Trebarwith Strand with my young child we arrived about 10:30 it started to rain about 1/2 to 1 hour later and the car park attendant said 'leaving all ready?' I replied it's raining, he said its not much it will blow over. It was coming in from across Davidstow Moor. We left anyway. Trebarwith is like Boscastle a very steep split in the landscape leading to a beach but with just one way in and out with only a couple of buildings thankfully its river did not overflow or there would have been fatality as people would have had to scramble up the cliffs to escape. Any way we needed fuel and the nearest place was at the top of Boscastle. We got there and as we did we decided we would go down to get something to eat. As my disabled mother exited the building, after paying, and sat in the car the heavens opened. We decided to go back to Bossiney where we were staying to eat instead and wait for the rain to clear. My mother started driving up to the main road by the time we got there [just a few hundred yards], I ordered my mother to stop. As we were pointing in the opposite direction we could not see Boscastle behind us, in fact we could not see properly out the car windows at all. We started out again as the rain cleared a little and it was not until i went out to get bread from the site shop that i saw the helicopters. Looking i could see water poring out of Rocky Valley into Bossiney Cove, but it was not until 4pm that me knew what was happening in Boscastle. We watched the helicopters moving to and fro landing and taking off again. For the rest of the holliday we had to navigate the back roads away from Boscastle as the larger roads were needed for heavy equipment. later we finally got down to the village and saw the devastation for our selves. we had been there the day before the flood and all the shops and the visitors center we had visited were damaged. Shops on the left were washed through as if they were tunnels. How the rest of the building were standing i don't know. The rook shop had its rooks washed away and some of them were very heavy. The shoe shop lost its stock and the tea room we had been playing to eat in was badly damaged. We could not get down to the harbor fully as it was closed off [ we did the following year]. Had the Boscastle car park not been at the opposite end to the harbor in the valley, and the river which run aside the car park found surface before the shops instead of after the inn at, the bridge people and cars would have been at risk more than they were. Thankfully there are 2 road entries to Boscastle and the 2nd behind the car park was not affected, so cars could escape. Had we been in the low half of the village that day, I believe that my mother would not have survived due to her disability. Thankful I had decided we should go back to Bossiney instead of eating in Boscastle.
So thankful you all survived!! As a disabled gal myself, I cannot imagine if I got caught in something like that! Seven or eight yrs ago, it was nothing for me to take off on a road trip at midnight to see my folks 115 miles away, or my in-laws 185 miles away! But when your body fails you, even backing out of the driveway is a little disconcerting! Take care!
Went there a while after the event. I was aware of what happened but was blown away by the beauty of the place.
Yes... Boscastle is a very special place for sure.
As an 8 year old in 2004 my family chose to have a family holiday in Cornwall, I remember it raining daily very well. The Boscastle flooding happened only a few days after we got home and I remember thinking "Of course it's flooding it rains all the time in Cornwall". Stumbling across this video has been an excellent lesson in what actually happened that day!
God bless you 🥹🫂💝
Excellent documentary. Boscastle was featured in a tv series called 'A Seaside Parish', which focussed on the vicar's role in the area (she briefly appeared here in the community centre shot). So not only was there the horrific aspect on the news, but to some viewers, we felt like we knew the people affected so it was doubly heartbreaking. Also the series went on to show how the village recovered, as well as Prince Charles visiting.
i remember this day! i lived in the village next to Boscastle (crackington), luckily most of the village was at the top of the hill
i was at a friends house while the storm happened and my dad walked over to pick me up, and as we were walking back home, looking up i remember seeing so many rescue helicopters.
my mum and sister at the time were trying to get back home from being in Plymouth and were very confused as to why all the roads were blocked, as for them, the day was a lovely summer day
Crackington... Where one of the steepest - if not THE steepest - roads in Cornwall is located. At low tide on the Crackington 'Strand' one can walk around an old Kriegsmarine 'E'-Boot wreck - it's engines being the only thing remaining...
PS - Boscastle was the first village I lived in when I first moved to Cornwall after my sojourn in the RN and later Greenpeace.
@@Deebz270 i walked to where the wreck was quite a few times with my family when i was little, as the sea currents would always wash up interesting things along that part of the shore. Moved away from the village nearly 15 years ago, but miss it dearly!
@@Deebz270 A nod / appreciation for Surfers Against Sewage, (SAS), created in St Agnes, Cornwall, campaigning like Greenpeace for safe Seawater to surf and swim in.
Fascinating account - well researched and well narrated. Thank you!
In Germany there was a similar event in the Ahr River Valley on July 21st 2021(Rhineland Palatinate). Many houses were swept away and 135 people died.
Remember the day well. Was working on an MOD base close by. We were put on alert to take in rescued people and prepare hot food and drinks. We were watching the news as the flood happened but we had no rain just bright sunshine with incredible heat. In the end we were stood down. So glad there were no fatalities.
The planes probably came from that base.
146K subs already- I was one of the first subscribers…I knew you would kick butt with your incredible editing!!
OG! Thanks for the kind words 🙏
This was solid. It's also a reminder that changing climates could be bringing flooding to your area more frequently than it did in the last 100 years ... and that it only takes one flood, regardless of cause to change some things forever.
Also, don't leave important stuff in your car. 😇
The floods in Germany in 2023 come to mind. This reminded me of those.
Although if the AMOC collapses...
Annual precipitation across the UK would fall, which could lessen flood risk but increase drought risk
There have always been devastating floods in that area due to rain water running off the moors , Try doing some basic research that goes back further than a few decades ffs
@@tillyt4054 None of what you said negates any of what I said.
@@tillyt4054yes, and I remember my grandma showing me similar pictures she took, in Turriff Aberdeenshire, in the 80s, flash floods happen in severe storms, that’s why the Met Office issues weather warnings if there is a risk, but climate change means a 1 in 100 year event becomes a 1 in 25 year event , or less, so maybe take your own words and do some basic research yourself. More severe storms more frequently less time for communities to recover in between.
Thank you for a great explanation of what happened. I remember it, I was a child and on a nearby farm at the time, at the top of the valley and it was terrifying. My mum was working in Launceston and didn’t believe us when we told her what was happening because it was brilliant sunshine and very hot over there.. thankfully it made the national news so told her to watch it.
I remember the flood when I was a kid! I'm from Plymouth, it's pretty close by to Boscastle an hour away thereabouts. I've visited Boscastle quite a few times in recent years and the area around it. At the witchcraft museum there they have the flood line to show how high it was in some parts. It's a great documentary you've put together, it's good to hear the stories from who were there that day. 💜
Yes I have visited the Witchcraft Museum since the flood and seen the water line marks. It devastated the museum, it is remarkable how many artifacts they saved from the ruin. An interesting place with much of humans history in the building. Loved visiting.
this is quality story reporting, thank you for your work!
Much appreciated!
Very Interesting, but terribly devastating for the people. Nice job and well done. Thank you, from Georgia USA 🇺🇸 ❤
This is actually mad. You’ve reminded me of what was an emotionally crushing event in childhood, a mini titanic moment as such, which I’d forgotten. I’m remembering all the cottages and how beautiful I thought they were. I think I was mostly worried about the buildings looking back
Although I heard about it, I'd never seen the actual footage. Thx much for this story
Fabulously put together video, I remember seeing it on the news (I was living in San Francisco at the time) and thinking how horrifying it must have been to be there. I also really love how respectfully you did this, seeking out and filming only people that were willing to discuss it, and not being a shock-journalist about the whole thing. Well done all around!
Excellent informative production again Sir. Keep up the good work, keep reporting the stories!
Thank you for such a well researched and edited video!!
Jeez, how chilling is that helicopter message at 11:07. 😮
Good old Culdrose.- always there wirh choppers to help with local emergencies......I was Wren at Culdrose working on Channel 2 in the tower....such an exoerience for a young girl - fell in love with Cornwall....so sad to watch these tragic scenes, bit still proud of the service Culdrose gave to local rescues......
Thank you for this very interesting story of an extraordinary weather incident and its long term consequences. A somewhat similar situation happened near where I live in a town called Ellicott City, Maryland USA. One of the first industrial sites in America, it was built in a narrow valley at the confluence of three streams to take advantage of water power. Some buildings were actually built over the streams. Over the last century the loss of forest cover above the valley contributed to two devastating flash floods. After the second, rebuilding was halted and the Army Corp of Engineers recommended moving and rebuilding the town upslope as the only way to salvage it, but the idea met too much resistance so now the town remains more or less in limbo. The Boscastle incident seems very unlikely to recur, but irreversible land use changes have doomed the once thriving Ellicott City.
This video made me think of exactly the same thing - there were sudden, devastating floods in Ellicott City in July 2016 and then again in May 2018. Business owners who had just managed to get their stores open after the first flood went through the same terrifying destruction all over again. Both times the rain was so abrupt and intense that there was no time to warn anyone, and since the town depended on tourism, both times there were people shopping and eating in restaurants who suddenly found themselves in danger of literal death.
And in the UK freak rainfall and storms are on an increase, so nowhere is really safe now, where flash floods and low lying places and narrow valleys are vulnerable.
wow, such a great documentation of this fascinating event! 20 years!! wow
Lovely landscapes,lovely village that is worth to visit.Hello from Ath-Greece,stay healthy and take care!!
Great video, thanks for making it. I'm Cornish and I remember this happening but I didn't know that much about it and it's really interesting to look back on it now, as uou have done 🙏 Great job 👍
That was great! There are so many stories around those coasts of survival and determination. I grew up learning about the Lynmouth tragedy.
Another good one thanks. It's always good when Tourism can return to disaster locations, but I can well imagine that some people can only take so many events; especially on this scale. And of course when more of the original residents leave, or are replaced; the spirit of that area can also change.
I've lived in Fleetwood, [Lancashire] all my life. In 1927, the sea broke over the wall, and joining with the River Wyre, much of the town became an island. The Strawberry Gardens pub has a line marked, showing the flood level.
In 1977, South Westerly winds and a high Spring Tide flooded the town again. And again, the sea met the river. Few will forget that Friday night either. The winds were force 10 and 12
I answered a call for volunteers, on Saturday evening, and by 22.00hrs, it was looking like it would happen again. Thankfully, it didn't, but a lagoon behind the sea wall was flooded, and seeping onto the road. I went home on the Sunday night, because of work the next day. I was a Groundsman on Rossall [snr] School. Because of the tons of sand and stones thrown over, it was weeks before we cleared it all. I saw things in people's home that were awful.. I sometimes hope I'm elsewhere in Nov-2027.
This was taught in my school for GCSE Geography, the science part of it is fascinating
My favourite channel. Always brings interesting topics, stories and insights I haven't heard of. Keep up the great work!
A great video. I remember seeing this on the news and thinking I hope no one dies and luckily no one did. How it looks now is a testament of british people to overcome such terrible events and to rebuild and stand together in helping each other get back on their feet.
I've just found your channel, suggested by YT. I've now subscribed. Very well presented, good amount of video from the time as well as you taking the time to go there to explain the lay of the land and what it is like now.
That's awesome, thank you for subscribing, I hope you enjoy watching more - Andy!
WELL DONE. I will see what else you have produced.....keep people humble. Mother Nature needs respect. These events are sad and could happen to anyone. Just look at 2020-22!
and 25 - 26.
Great investigative reporting and interviews with locals.
Adding Boscastle to my bucket list of places to visit
As a Nova Scotian, this hits close to home. A lot of our towns are similar to this, and with climate change, some are slowly being swallowed by the sea, inch by inch year after year. All they need is one bad hurricane to vanish.
Thank you for uploading this/making this. I have Two memory sets in my mind for Boscastle, Pre-Flood memories with the little Tea Shop along the left side of the harbour with the amazing Earl Grey Tea in Glass Cups, and the Original Harbour Light building as well as both the Original Mystical Place and its neighbour shop, The Other Place being there and the quaint olde-world aesthetic of the area, and The newer Revamped/replacement buildings of the Post-Flood era. I miss the old time place, it had an palpable magic to it, it still has its magic, just not as it was before.
I was here a week ago today and only just found out there was a flood there through this video, such a beautiful village that you'd never know it had such a dark history. It looks utterly normal 20 years on. That happened the day before my first birthday so I would've had no idea it happened
I live on the East Coast just south of Boston on the shore, the oceans in my blood. That geography of that land is so cool, it looks like a mystical valley with the tide filling that gap from the ocean, what a beautiful spot. Thank you.
The ocean's in everybody's blood, sport, that's where life comes from.
You should visit some day, the two regions have a lot of shared history. You can visit the steps in Plymouth the pilgrims used before heading to Massachusetts
Do you mean Boston in the USA or Boston in England?
I go to Boscastle every year for our family holiday, we stop for 2 weeks and love it! My 4 year old daughter loves seeing the blow hole there!
20 years ago? Gosh, I remember it so well! Thankfully no one died. I do wonder how many pets did though :(
There were deaths at Lynmouth 34 in all, the bodies of two Australian girls were never found.
I’m in NZ but I have visited this lovely place. I felt for these people as I had my home flooded in invercargill in 1984 so knew some of what they had been through. Ours was not as violent as they went through.
I have almost no memory of this. Which is very odd when I know so much about the Lynmouth flood disaster, over 50 years before.
I was born just a year after that happened, so it was still something you frequently heard about as I was growing up - we visited friends there when I was still a child and saw the aftermath first hand. And, then, in my early 20s, we had a holiday in the area and there was still plenty of evidence of the flood, even then. And there were still people living there who had experienced the nightmare firsthand. We visited the National Trust café at Watersmeet (like Boscastle, two rivers coming off the moor, meet at the top of the valley), and the people who worked there talked about that day in horrifying detail.
A very similar disaster to Boascastle - very high rainfall over the moor (although the day before, in this case), two rivers in flood meeting, trees, boulders, jammed up against bridges, which then collapsed, sending huge, debris-filler waves pouring down the valley - and a pretty sea-side village at the bottom that bore the brunt of all that water and material. The main difference, apart from delay, and the sheer scale, was the absence of cars, as few people had cars then, and there were far fewer tourists. It's a sobering thought that one of the reasons Boscastle was worse, even than Lynmouth, was the number of vehicles swept down the river, and the secondary damage they caused. Feels like there''s a message there.
Until you’ve lived through a flash flood, you can’t even begin to imagine what the fear is like if you end up in the water.
In Australia, we regularly have massive INLAND tsunamis. It’s unfathomable.
They are always catastrophic AND deadly 😭😭
I went to boscastle on holiday just after lockdown. In the doorway of the witches museum there is a scale to show how high the water reached. It’s really eerie when you actually see it.
In Lynmouth, the houses along the river literally vanished, along with their occupants. The foundations, gardens, and their twisted iron fences are still there hidden among the rocks and trees.
Cloud seeding….
@@oakashthorn5714 (confirmed in a BBC Documentary - government Operation Cumulus)
me and my dad went down to newquay airport a few years ago to deliver some cakes and stuff to the coast guard just before christmas ended up spending nearly 3 hours there having a walk around and sitting in there helicopter got told some storys of this event + the longest distance search and rescue event that had ever been done from the uk shores. trip came to an end when they got called out was sat in the pilots seat at the time.
💜🧡❤Not just informative and fascinating but the scenery is just breath taking! For someone like myself who used to travel but is unable to even leave the house at times these days these videos are a life saver. Thank you. I am lucky as I managed to travel the world before my mental illness hit, others are not so fortunate. These days I am a virtual traveller so these videos are vital for my sanity!!!! THANK YOU 💜🧡❤👏
Very interesting subject to randomly pop up on my recommended. Appreciate the story telling, local interviews and taking the effort to visit the place. Look forward to seeing more videos from you.
Another great video! So interesting to hear all about these events and how they unfolded.
My mother and I planned to visit Boscastle on that day. I lived in Cornwall and my mum was visiting. I wanted to see the Witchcraft museum and mum wanted to see the village. For some reason we changed our mine on route and decided to go to Lands End. We saw the storm approaching - it was like a wall and quite rough in Land’s End - clearly by the time it got to Boscastle it had gathered strength. We were so shocked when we saw the devastation - we would have been caught up in it for certain.
I was with my wife and 3 VERY young kids camping 16 miles away. I have only just started watching the video so I have no idea if you are going to mention the lightening that happened... I know it did cause I witnessed it .. .strike after strike after strike... it was frightening..
The museum of witchcraft there has a tide line in their main entrance room that shows the depth of the water on that day. They also have a lifesize model of a witch woman, that was seen floating down the river on that day. It was believed at first to be a casualty, until they realised what it was.
I've lived in Cornwall my whole life and this is the first I've heard about this! I'm amazed
RAF Culdrose are amazing, in 1989 i fell around 250ft off a cliff further down the coast at Kenidjack castle outside St Just, 10 rescue climbers couldn't get me out as I had bounced into an alcove, the helicopter pilot was amazing I was told, as I was unconscious so no memory of my only helicopter ride and he had to come in at an angle well close to the cliff face.
Man I remember this well, I left the Cobweb inn after an early lunch after walking our dogs up the the lookout and back to eat, I knew nothing about this until I was doing some DIY and a radio was on and we heard of the disaster as an emergency broadcast, only the fact I wanted to finish a project at my girlfriends cottage in Badgall, otherwise we may have still been wondering around the village.
Amazing video. Thanks for making it ❤
Such a well told story, Andy! Looking forward to the next one 🌎
What an absolutely beautiful little village. In the desert 🏜, we have dry riverbeds. But ever few years, during the monsoon, they'll flood. "Once a river, always a river." Don't ever build in a riverbed.😢
In my geography gcse, this was used as a case study when talking about flood management
My husband was the fire officer in charge of the rescue mission.
Sadly there were some fatalities, a couple of dogs that their owners had left in cars whilst they were going to get parking tickets and maps from the visitors centre. 😞
And a number of local cats also disappeared after this day.
Good to spare a thought for those animals.
/
Nice video, I was there way back in circa 1986 👍👍
You'd be amazed at how far fire appliances were called to the scene, we're 40 miles away and one of our pumps was called. Good over view but I wish you'd left the 'England' out Cornwall is a Duchy.
Why are people so funny about their territory. Geographically Cornwall is part of England .
@@MsPinkwolf Genetically and culturally different, it's less geographically joined to England than both Scotland and Wales, the border being all bar the last three miles made of water. 🙂
@rialobran still part of England....
@@MsPinkwolf I think you'll find if you do a deep dive it has never been formally incorporated. The word 'county' was adopted in the Victorian era. No other 'county' has different laws and no other 'county's' status within the UK cannot be commented on in Parliament. It's a Duchy and protectorate of the UK. The crown has no authority other than that granted by the duke.
@@rialobran So Cornwall doesn't get any funding from parliament? Is that why it's such a poor area?
I’m glad to hear that the government deepened the river in hopes it will stay in the banks!
Another brilliant piece again!
I remember seeing this on the news. I would have only been 8 at the time but we live 50 miles down the coast. I remember my mum crying watching the report but I didn’t fully understand it until a few years later. Days later I remember my dad heading off to help with repairs in his own time
Been going to Boscastle for over 50 years. Lovely place.
I am terribly sorry for those inhabitants that suffer several damages in their health and the lost of their belongings. My condolences to all of them, and specially to the eldest that can not find a job because of their seniority, so they can not access to new salary resources to rebuilt their lives, and also to the widows and children.
My humble opinion is that there is a cycle of a brave Sun shining such as we never have seen. The activity of the Solar Spots, like tremendous fire tongues that come to the Earth. Also the elektro---magnetic activity from the beyond. Apart from that, the NiFe (Magmatic Niquel-Ferrum), that is the center of the Earth is having a tremendous activity (see the earthquakes, maremotos, the vulcanism and so on). It is such as if a pressure caldron were heated both by the up-wards and by the back-wards... So there are more evaporation of the waters and more huge showers.
Also, of course, there are some human non-desire interventions made many, many years before but with now a day consequences such as the nuclear detonations of France in the Pacific Ocean, the ones made in the Arctic Circle by the Russians and, of course, those made by the Chinese and its allies.
What a mess, what a disaster. And it will be in an increasing scale... God and the Angels might protect us, and guide to better lands for a nice living in peace.
Might OLJC bless you. Many thanks for this short documental movie.
The footage of the Boscastle flash floods reminds me of the 2004 Indonesia tsunami, which happened later that year. Both showed the overwhelming power of water and the devastation it caused
Interesting that it was in 2004. In New Zealand I lived in an area that had terrible flooding. The town Feilding had a river on all 5 exits to the town. We were trapped. Houses were swamped.
I love interesting stories like this.
Nicely done.
I live over in Devon, and i went there once with my family back in 2016 while on holiday in Bude. Quite sad to see what happened to be honest, I saw a lot of things about the flood while I was there.
Boscastle was not a unique event. 52 years earlier, to the day, a worse disaster occurred at Lynmouth, North Devon. Same topography: a steep sided valley with two rivers converging upstream, together with exceptionally heavy rainfall on the higher ground inland. Nobody died at Boscastle. At Lynmouth 34 people perished.
A wonderful documentary. Thank you.
Cobweb Inn takes me back 60 years :-) Used to be a little old lady playing the piano , she was the heart of the place .
Heavily made up white face , looked like one of those elfin Cornish folk :-)