The Boscastle flood took the town by total surprise. Not used to flooding, it was a shock the town was not prepared for.
One of the factors could be where the village was. It was in the Valency valley that had a small river running through. The steep hills that surrounded it made the rain water that came down the hills faster and more powerful as it accelerated. The ground already The hills also made all of the fast water become packed in a tight, narrow space. This meant that Boscastle just couldn’t contain the amount of water that came in such an instant. The river overflowed, causing the town to endure sudden flash flooding.
Another reason, which seems pretty obvious, is the rain! 600 mm’s (60 cm) of rain fell in 2 hours which is more than most areas get in a month. This was a rare occurrence that really was disastrous as nobody expected weather conditions to get this bad. This meant that people weren’t prepared for such dangerous flash flooding.
On top of this, the rocks around Boscastle are impermeable. This means that they do not absorb water-because of this, the water didn’t penetrate the rocks leaving all of the water to run off them causing even more overflow. In addition to this cause by rocks, boulders carried as debris were transported along the river causing mass destruction.
These were the main reasons for the flooding, as the humans didn't really make it happen.
