"TudorHgh" wrote in message
...
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.



What an excellent reply.
You make a great point here and I nearly went into more detail myself on
this one.
" The 130 cars washed out to sea sounds like *every* car, this being
1952, remember".

Car ownership in 1952 was less than a quarter of what it is today. I
shudder to think what would have happened if this was repeated today.