1. Find a Google map of Boscastle to show where it is?

2. What date did the incident happen?

The incident which effected Boscastle occurred on August 16th 2004.

3. What actually happened?

The incident was a major flood, this was caused by a months worth of rain falling within 4 hours, this causing the river Valency to overflow which then damaged the village. The current was so powerful that it swept buildings, cars and boats out through the harbour.

4. What were the causes of the flood?

The main causes of the flood were due to a large quantity of rain falling within 4 hours, a whole months worth of rain to be precise. With the village being the same level or if that, lower than the river, the water had an easy route into the village where it was not stopped until it hit the harbour at the bottom. With a lack of defence from the river, this also allowed the current to become strong and destroy bridges, causing further damage to buildings.

5. Try to find a rainfall gauge map of the rainfall that hit the area between 1100 and 1800 on the day of the event?
This link below shows a graph of the rainfall over Boscastle between the times of 10:30am 19:30pm, it shows the movement of the rain and the volume of it by showing the different colours of how heavy it was.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=102 4&bih=606&tbm=isch&tbnid=at2GMpCYOtZHoM:&imgrefurl=ht tp://sites.google.com/site/natashaclarejones/cause&docid=P_T WyJ7x4zaVM&imgurl=http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/interesting /images/radar_16aug04.gif&w=500&h=400&ei=6YzT96tC6a60QXtgsWbCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=523&vpy=253 &dur=94&hovh=201&hovw=251&tx=147&ty=138&sig=1035104 51413088518002&page=1&tbnh=116&tbnw=145&start=0&nds p=16&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:0,i:102

6. Find an image of the river Valency and river Jordan, why are these two rivers important in identifying the causes of the flood?

7. Use the below link to access the timeline of what happened. Can you name as many of the emergency services that were deployed on that day as possible?
The Emergency services involved were; RNLI (Port Isaac and Bude lifeboats), Fire and Rescue Service, Police Force, RAF (rescue helicopter 169 and Culdrose, Helicopter 170, 180 and 194), Royal Navy, Coastguards (helicopter), Ambulance Service (Air ambulance) and the Cliff Rescue team, Devon Urban Search and rescue team and Marine and Coastguard agency.

8. Fire-fighters from which stations were mobilized to Boscastle?

The following stations mobilized fire fighters to Boscastle; Launcester Fire, St Austell, Bodmin, Padstow, Truro, Delabole, St. Ives, Newquay, Camborne and Penzance.

9. Which fire service was the first to arrive on the scene at Boscastle?
The first Fire Brigade to be called to Boscastle was Cornwall County Fire Brigade.

10. What role did the police play in the event? How were they able to help?
The Police took charge of the situation and dealt with the communication between all the emergency services that turned up to help on the day of the flood, and the rescue tasks late that night and the next day. A police helicopter also sent out the report that Boscastle has flooded at 4:52pm.

11. RAF helicopters were scrambled from which bases?

Helicopters were dispatched from RAF Chivenor, RNAS Culdrose and RAF ST Mawgon.

12. What role did these helicopters play?

The Helicopters which were scrambled were set out to help winch people trapped to safety, over 100 people were winched and around 6 Fire fighters were also saved, they were also out to help determine where base control could be set up so the Emergency services are safe until they are needed.

13. At 2100 hours fire relief crews from nearby stations were scrambled, what does this mean? Fire relief means that a unit has been sent out to try and find people still left in the rubble, or to remove any materials or objects which could cause serious damage to people or the environment. 14. During the rescue operation 6 fire fighters had to be airlifted, why do you think this was?
The 6 fire-fighters were trapped and had to airlift because they got trapped whilst looking for people to save and winch to safety.

15. Life boats were scrambled from nearby Lifeguard stations why was this?
Life boats were sent to Boscastle because they were required to move up to the houses and help get people to safety, but in the end they couldnt get through the dog leg sea defence, they were then required to check the vehicles for people, if there was no people in them, they had to smash the windows to allow them to sink to the bottom of the harbour.

16. Devon and Cornwalls constabulary identified the incident as Major and Gold control was open. What does this mean?
Gold control means that whoever has it (mainly Police are on gold control) they are there to lead all the Emergency Services throughout the time in Boscastle. They had to control the communication also and update the services on new tasks or to check whether people have been saved or buildings destroyed to add to the information needed to be gathered.

17. What Jobs did the fire fighters do on this day and after the event in the clean up operation?
The Fire-fighters were set out to mainly save people from the use of Fire Engines (pumps), but because they could not reach the houses due to the large amount of water separating them. So they were then set the task of trying to clear debris and clean up areas to allow people back to the area to find their belongings, they were then sent to clear rubble up days later also and look for people to ensure no people or animals have been trapped.

18. Watch the video link below. What do you think flash flooding means? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrb0Ea0OkKU A flash flood is when the current over flows a geographically low lying land, mainly caused by rivers and lakes. The causes of a flash flood are when large quantities of rain fall quickly onto poor absorbing soil or road sides etc. In Boscastle, there was not enough drain capacity to take large quantities of water away from the village and the soil did not absorb well causing the flooding to stay until it reached the harbour.

19. How many casualties were there in the incident?

It was reported that around 50 local people and visitors spent time at the Emergency rest centre after being saved by the helicopters.

20. How many homes were flooded?

There were 100 homes that were flooded by the water from the flood destroying personal belongings and home.