The infamous Boscastle Flood of 2004, a dramatic event that devastated the picturesque village in Cornwall, UK amazingly caused no fatalities. Experience the shocking footage and hear about the incredible rescue efforts that unfolded during this natural disaster. Learn how the flood affected the community and what measures have been taken since to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again!
Original Video: https://youtu.be/jG2S80-bgP0?si=Q45s8pr8F9Yndqb-
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The RNLI is a charity funded by legacies and donations.
The majority of the lifeboat crews are unpaid volunteers.
They operate over 400 lifeboats from 238 stations around the U.K.
I remember seeing the tsunami on the news on boxing day 2004, we were in Camelford and had just been to Boscastle a few days earlier and seen the remaining damage caused by the flood
There used to be and, as far as I know, still are, markers on buildings to show the water level.
i am certain i've seen less serious floods on tv news and one about the river loos doing this also. this seems to have been more severe than any incident before in recent times and may also be one of the first signs of climate change affecting the severity of rainfall.
This was fascinating and JJ made it hugely entertaining too. Love this channel, thanks JJ.
I love Boscastle. We used to camp near there every summer in the 90s/00s and have a full English breakfast next to the river by the harbour. Then we'd go back a few hours later for a pint at the Cobweb Inn. So sad when this happened. Such a beautiful place.
I wasn’t too far away on holiday at the time and we had a terrible camping trip in pouring rain. No smartphones so we only knew thanks to the newspapers that we were close to a big national disaster event.
I think America has worst storms and hurricanes and natural disasters than the UK will ever see.
Cornwall has such a unique climate. There are palm trees that grow well in parts of Cornwall 😊
Thanks for this posting. Myself and my family where actually staying in Boscastle during our holiday in Cornwall last month. We stayed at one of the buildings shown in the video. We weren't aware of this past incident, so your video post surprised me. I can say that Boscastle is a special place and I recommend anybody to visit here if you ever travel to Cornwall. Also, about 15 minutes drive down the road is Tintagel which is also a special place to visit, with history of Camelot and Merlins Cave, I would recommend to visit. Thanks.
This just shows the power of the weather and the damage it can do when so many factors line up. It must have been frightening beyond belief for those caught up in it so I am probably going to sound like an a**hole when I say that I enjoy watching storms. We get some big storms in Spain and around the middle of September to October there is always the chance of witnessing a Gota Fria (translates as cold drop) when the rain just falls as if the biggest bucket ever has been overturned. Roads flood in no time. Airports are sometimes closed if too close to the storm. The cause of the Gota Fria is cold air from the north meeting warm air from the south and if the conditions are right, deluge.
I live about 25 miles down the coast from Boscsatle and that day freaked me out somewhat as we had no rain at all that day. Like he said we are a micro climate.
Be careful about the interpretation of "inches of rain". They're not saying that Boscastle received the volume of rain in 5 hours that the whole UK normally receives in 3 months. They're saying it received in 5 hours what a place the size of Boscastle should expect over 3 months based on an average calculated over the whole UK. Inches of rain is to volume of rain what population density is to total population.
Oh I’ve actually been there!
you should look up the Canvey Island flood of 1953. devastating
this guys does some good ones he did one on the east cost getting washed away too he does some good videos
I'd been delivering in boscastle that day and was at the top of the valley when it started
If you think this is bad you ought to see the aberfan disaster
Here on the East Coast, the North Sea Flood of 1953 was a major event for the UK and Netherlands. Caused by the combination of a very high tide and a storm surge down the North Sea. Leading to a considerable loss of life. An event that is largely forgotten today.
The aberfan disaster would break your heart.
It's not just the coast which has experienced flash flooding in recent history, London has had some in recent years and not near the River Thames, flooded roads and tube stations, I don't think any part of the UK has escaped these extraordinary weather conditions, but as I say recent years, we didn't have this when growing up many many many years ago
I worked at the Met Office a few years after the Boscastle flood. A forecaster explained to me that the size of the "cells" (like pixels on their weather map) they used in their computer model was actually significantly larger than the very small but very intense storm that caused it, so it simply didn't show up in the forecast. The next supercomputer they bought (in 2008) had a much higher resolution, and would have allowed them to warn people that it was going to happen.
Sometime you should check out the Aberfan disaster caused by bad management and rain.
I've been meaning to ask but were you on Criminal Minds season 17 episode 1? You played a character called carlyle who was found dead.
amazing what you can do with taxes
I visited there 2 Day before it happened was shocked when I see it unfold on the news
He called Cornwsll part of England. It isn't. It is a country, with its own language, flag and people.
The rescue services performed a lot of miracles that day. Watching it on the news, it looked like the end for everyone there. That everyone survived was incredible.
Climate change was a major factor. These events will get more frequent.
Boscastle is now best known for its amazing museum of witchcraft.
I believe this happened to Lynton & Lynmouth in Devon as well at a different time.
Speak as a local and in the area but safe at the time. The emergency services worked miracles that day!
Boscastle is a beautiful place to visit, I would highly recommend going there. It has a very good witchcraft museum. We went there about 5 years ago.
A few of the shops do have plaques on the wall to show how high the water got.
The weather can change really quickly in Cornwall, I remember being in Sennen Cove further South near Lands End once and you could watch the misty rain cloud come in off the coast. It poured with rain within a very short time it was sunny and hot again.
Thank you for reacting to a video about the South West of England. My home area of Britain, hope you're well
I live about 40 miles West, when the weather comes in it hits hard
JJ have a look at the Lynmouth flood disaster of 1952 – that was similar but move devastating because of the village geography.
The miracle of British emergency services
the exact same thing happened decades earlier (on the same day too) in a town nearby. so it has happened before and likely will happen again, but luckily its still kinda rare. EDIT: of course i comment this before finishing the video and they mention the exact same thing i did XD
very simple to make a sream deeper with water flowing stand in and dig it out if shallow if larger use a digger or a dredger its easy with the right equipment up to the size of a harbour using a dredger.
Hi JJ, the RNLI isn't the Coastguard, it's a charity. It's 200 years old this year. The crews are volunteers.
The Coastguard is a government body, like yours.
The helicopters were from Air Sea Rescue which I believe are part of the RAF.
So the Coastguard would be coordinating stuff and the RNLI and RAF would be working together.
What doesn't come across in this video was the amazing organization of all the helicopters. More than half a dozen choppers were taking turns to swoop in, rescue people, take them to safety, come back, do it again. All this in a tight valley without hitting each other or anything else.
Ive been there a couple times as i live in Devon, the next county over, the effect of the flood though isnt funny but the same of the effect is quite humorous, The Brown Willy effect, it's a meteorological phenomenon that occurs when high ground in Cornwall, England is hit by westerly or southwesterly winds, causing heavy showers or prolonged rain in the surrounding areas. The effect is named after Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall and Bodmin Moor.
It happened in 1952, and exactly 52 years later it happened again.
We would take the kids to Boscastle every New Year's day while visiting my in laws and get an ice cream as a treat. Seeing the devastation was shocking
I was staying about 15 miles up the coast, i remember looking on the news and we had no rain, and was fine, so it was very confined cloud burst, i visited there the following year,and there was a marker on the wall of a house showing whete the water level was…scary
JJ … The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami was in and around Thailand, including
Banda Ace (pronounced "Banda Atchay") but the tsunami in Japan was in March 2011.
My Neice is the girl in the striped tee shirt going up to the helicopter. She was selling ice cream as her summer holiday job and was asked by the manager to help her clear the hotel . They got trapped by the rising water,, broke into the attic and out onto the roof
It did happen in the 1950s up the coast at Lynmouth and. Lynton
People did d ie then
I'm currently in Thailand and next door is Vietnam where Typhoon Yagi just killing people with flooding and landslides. There's a video of a bridge getting washed away just as a truck and moped are crossing, the truck didn't make it.
I didn't even know this happened
"It must have happened before, surely?"
Well, maybe, but people are stubborn and/or stupid: Why else would people still build cities on major fault lines, even after earthquakes? How many active volcanoes have some sort of settlement by them? I mean, I can understand the original people stopping there, saying, "wow, this soil's amazing!" However, we now know WHY it's so good, and we still go, "eh… fiery death or great fertiliser. I'm cool with that."
*EDIT*
Huh – seems like I'm not the only one to wonder about this.
https://youtu.be/ARsOStAuHbk?si=GpYbEvdQepIsSs_G
I was staying in the village at the time (in one of the white cottages high on the right hand side of the harbour looking to sea). I had left the village at lunch time, so my car may have been one of the last to cross that little stone bridge.
If I had stayed, I would have been safe, as I would have been well about the flood, but trapped until the road was clear enough for cars. Walking out would not have been a option, disabled on crutches 😀
A change of plan meant we visited Boscastle the day before this flood. How lucky were we.