Boscastle Floods

The Flood Hits!

As the river overflowed Boscastle rapidly began to flood. Residents and tourists alike fled indoors, eventually being forced to hide upstairs as the ravenous flood started to take over the bottom floors of the buildings. At one point a gigantic wave swept through the village, bringing further destruction to an already battered village. Eventually around 7PM the floodwaters receeded and the extent of the destruction soon became obvious.

Aftermath

Picture
One of the many cars that ended up in the Atlantic Ocean.
Remarkably despite the chaos, there were no deaths and only one injury (a broken thumb). This is due to a number of factors: The village's population is rather low, emergency services were well-equipped to deal with the situation but mostly down to sheer luck.

Automobiles were not so lucky however: 32 vehicles were swept out to sea and hundreds more were damaged beyond repair. Up to 12 cars piled up in front of a 100 year old stone bridge, eventually breaking and causing the gigantic wave mentioned earlier.