Twenty years ago today, flash floods devastated the north coast of Cornwall – sweeping through the villages of Boscastle and Crackington Haven with terrifying force.
A wall of water surged down the steep valley at Boscastle, after a blocked bridge collapsed, and smashed into the village, shattering windows and doors, uprooting trees and washing cars into the sea.
The Met Office reported three inches of rain in two hours during the afternoon on Monday, August 16, 2004.
Around 120 people were airlifted from damaged buildings and stranded vehicles – and it was testament to the steady professionalism of the helicopter crews and wider emergency services that no one was killed.
Royal Navy pictures of the disaster, shown below, capture the true extent of the devastation.
Three helicopters from the Royal Navy, three from the RAF, a coastguard aircraft from Portland and two civilian air ambulances from Liskeard were all involved in rescues.
One of those first on scene was Lieutenant Commander Martin ‘Florry’ Ford, who has just retired after 44 years with the Royal Navy.
Looking back on the 20th anniversary of the flooding, he said: “Boscastle should have been relatively easy, but circumstances made it extremely difficult.
“I am still amazed there were no fatalities. When you consider there were 50 or 60 cars washed out to sea - you only needed one family to stay in their car because of the rain, and that would have been it.”
Lt Cdr Ford was the observer in the duty search and rescue Sea King helicopter of 771 Naval Air Squadron. It is the same helicopter which today stands proudly beside the fence at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose at Helston.
His pilots were Lieutenant Mike Scott and Captain (Royal Marines) Peter McLelland, and the aircrewman was Warrant Officer Bob Yeomans. Lt Cdr Ford said they arrived off the coastal village of Boscastle in the midst of a ferocious downpour.
“We were sat outside over the sea, as visibility was terrible, and we were hit by a microburst,” he said. “The rain was that heavy it was like a waterfall running off the rotor blades all around us.
“We were having to bail out the aircraft with our helmets. It was that serious that I remember Pete McLelland said to us: ‘Look boys, remind yourselves of the exits’.”
He said the deluge shorted out the helicopter’s communications, so the pilots and rear crew had to communicate using hand signals.
“We then went in, and I can only describe it as what a tsunami would be like. There were cars, debris, Winnebagos and houses going past - all these cars – literally dozens of cars coming down the valley in the water,” he said.
“We started getting intermittent ‘comms’ and I remember hearing the order ‘save who you can’. It made the hairs on the back of my neck come up.”
Positioned at the aircraft’s side door, Lt Cdr Ford surveyed the destruction below while Warrant Officer Yeomans prepared to go down on the winchline.
“We could see people on rooftops,” added Lt Cdr Ford. “One family had broken through their roof. We started moving up through the village, picking people up. I’d see the next group and direct the pilots.
“On top of the visitors’ centre, there were four or five children, and Bob started bringing them up one by one. When they got inside the aircraft and I was taking them off the strop, I remember they all had huge grins.
“We sat them on the floor, and we were just piling people in. We carried on until we ran out of fuel. We dropped off the survivors at a playing field, where there were people to look after them, and we flew to St Mawgan to refuel.
“You’ve got to remember that this was bigger than just Boscastle. There was a 100-square miles affected. That evening we were called to attend another job. There’d been a big car crash, because of all the rain, and we ended up taking a small child up to hospital in Bristol.”
Lt Cdr Ford joined the Royal Navy in 1979 and by the 80s had trained as a helicopter aircrewman and then as an observer. In the First Gulf War of 1991, he spent an intense six weeks commanding a Lynx attack helicopter of 815 Naval Air Squadron, embarked on destroyer HMS Gloucester. His aircraft sank five Iraqi warships.
Between 2003 and 2016, he served at both RNAS Culdrose and HMS Gannet in Scotland, in search and rescue (SAR) and took part in more than 1,100 operations.
“In SAR, the enemy is the weather,” he added. “It’s harder to make decisions in SAR than it is when you’re being shot at. If you turn the aircraft away in conflict, you are saving yourself. If you turn away in SAR, it’s someone else’s life in danger.
“One of the hardest rescues I had was a small boy who drowned. He was washed off a beach in Cornwall. I remember it vividly. And I felt guilty. We did what we could with the skills we had, but you always feel you should have done more.
“For us in SAR, it was a calling. We would make sure we had cover. If someone was sick, they’d make a phone call, and someone would be there. There was no overtime. There was no extra pay. It was our duty.”
Earlier this year, Lt Cdr Ford was presented with a gold valedictory certificate signed by the head of the Royal Navy, the First Sea Lord, to recognise the 44 years he spent in the Royal Navy regular service and reserves.
In 2016, the military handed over civilian search and rescue duties to HM Maritime and Coastguard Agency, although crews continue to learn the skills and attend rescues in emergencies.
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