Thank goodness Boscastle was not like this.
However, these flooding events in the West Country are a bit more common
than many people think.


Actually, I think most weatherwise people have known this for a long
time.
In Lynmouth in 1952 there was time to get out but people living there
had seen torrential rain and the rivers in spate before and thought this was
nothing more than a rather big one. But the flood kept on rising and it got
too late. The 130 cars washed out to sea sounds like *every* car, this being
1952, remember. The entire town was evacuated for months while it was
rebuilt.
I distinctly remember, as a 9-yr-old, a headline in the News Chronicle
"Did Lake Burst Cause It?". This referred to to the collapse of a dam holding
back a small pond on the West Lyn. The "lake" is not visible on a 1" OS Map,
6th Edition, 1946. My parents' reaction was that this was obviously the cause
and it was a silly question. But they, and the paper were wrong. The dam
collapse may have added a small blip to the colossal flow for a minute or two
but no more than that.
Lynmouth was also wiped out (not too strong a term) in 1604 and 1770
(some say 1769), the latter occasion probably being worse than the 1952 flood.

Tudor Hughes, flood-proof Warlingham, Surrey.