The Boscastle Floods
Heavy seasonal rainfall is a common feature of the climate of South
West England and has been documented many times, sometimes it has
little affect on the landscape and just drains away but very
occasionally it has far more destructive effects. On the 16th of
August this year, massive amounts of rainfall over the North Cornish
coast caused a disaster on a scale that has not been seen since 1952.
A flash flood devastated the small coastal town of Boscastle, this
investigation will highlight the causes, effects and responses seen in
the event.
Heavy Rainfall
==============
The root cause of the flood is heavy rainfall; to understand all the
effects of this we must examine the cause of the heavy rainfall.
Thunderstorms are common in Britain, they are usually small and short
and while they may generate a lot of rainfall in a short time it is
not normally a problem. The thunderstorm over Boscastle was slightly
different, it is a phenomenon only seen roughly once a decade and very
rarely with such devastating results.
Thunderstorms are caused by huge masses of warm, wet air rising high
into the atmosphere to form cumulonimbus clouds. The updraft that is
generated by the air being heated near the ground causes the air to
rise taking the moisture with it, it then cools and condenses causing
a downdraft that carries a lot of precipitation. Boscastle is an
exceptional example of this however; the amount of precipitation
involved is an indicator of how rare an event it was.
The first of the unique conditions was the wind direction, onshore
winds from both the north and the south were bringing air into the low
pressure zone that was located over Cornwall, this low pressure zone
was due to the air over the land being heated and rising higher into
the atmosphere throughout the day.
[IMAGE]
Here you can see the direction of the wind during the day.
As the day went on the evaporation rate in the areas of sea increased
Life can bring unexpected events that individuals might not be prepared to confront. This was the case of O’Brien in the story, “On the Rainy River” from the book The Things They Carried. As an author and character O’Brien describes his experiences about the Vietnam War. In the story, he faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. He could not imagine how tough fighting must be, without knowing how to fight, and the reason for such a war. In addition, O’Brien is terrified of the idea of leaving his family, friends and everything he loves behind. He decides to run away from his responsibility with the society. However, a feeling of shame and embarrassment makes him go to war. O’Brien considers himself a coward for doing something he does not agree with; on the other hand, thinking about the outcome of his decision makes him a brave man. Therefore, an individual that considers the consequences of his acts is nobler than a war hero.
A Scientific American article published in October 2001 and named "Drowning New Orleans" essentially predicts the large scale impact a giant hurricane would have on the area, years before Hurricane Katrina.
Emilie Durkheim described the concepts of social regulation and social integration, and how both are connected to suicide rates. Both of these concepts can also be used to analyze the effect that the Buffalo Creek flood had on individuals and the community. Using the ideas of social regulation and social integration as well as the book “Everything in Its Path” by Kai T. Erikson, we can see the consequences of the Buffalo Creek flood disaster.
The Johnstown Flood Stained the history of the United States. Over 2000 victims died and even more injured. The flood has been blamed on many people since it happened. One group individually brought about the flood. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club made selfish changes threatening the effectiveness toward holding back a water overflow. The renovation made to the dam brought about the destruction killing many people and causing millions of dollars in damages.
The water moves at a faster rate since there is nothing to absorb the water, which could cause flooding.
In both the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh the God or Gods create a flood to destroy mankind. In Gilgamesh,the Gods decide something needs to be done because the humans are being loud and disturbing the Gods. In the Bible's version of the flood story, God regrets creating mankind because the humans have become evil God chooses Noah and his family to start a new beginning.
Memphis Tennessee floodings are awful events, but some have left their mark in history, and have impacted society making many people search for solutions. Historical flooding events have dated back beyond 1927, but Memphis’s first calamitous flood was in 1927, then in 2011, but between those dates there have been street floods that happen without interacting with the river. Many important aspects of everyday life are lost during floods such as lives, homes, and money. People have been searching for solutions to prevent floods, and ideas that are executed well could easily become an ideal panacea. Memphis is where I have been raised and experienced several floods, which gives me a much stronger feeling about the history, impacts, and techniques to stop floods.
Craig E.Colten’s book centers on a familiar problem that New Orleans city constantly faces, the flooding. In particular, the book focuses on the genesis of the flooding danger. In reference to Colten’s book, this essay will attack the statement “The environmental elements, as opposed to human actions, fully account for New Orleans’ problem with water”. The rationale of opening up unusable land by draining waters and construction of levees to contain Mississippi River water led to serious flooding during heavy downpour. After raising the levee systems to the desired levels in 1920s, the issues of drainage become apparent and the heavy rainfalls became the main cause of the wave of flooding in New Orleans. The thunderstorms –spawned rain replaced Mississippi River as the greatest threat. The water problem in New Orleans emanated from the human behavior of destroying natural conditions in New Orleans through natural environment modification to accommodate residential and commercial housing. From the foundation, New Orleans faced flooding threat, first from the Mississippi River and then downpour floods. Colten (2005) maintain that human wrested New Orleans site from nature resulting in continual struggle with water and floods.
McCullough presents a meticulously researched, detailed account of the Johnstown Flood of May 31st 1889, which provides arguments for why the disaster was both “the work of man” and “a visitation of providence”. However, it is apparent that McCullough believes that man was more responsible than nature/god for the extent of the catastrophe. In McCullough’s opinion, the storm that caused the flood was no more than the inevitable stimulus of the disaster, whereas the deferred maintenance and poor repairs on the dam were the primary reason that Johnstown was devastated in 1889. McCullough exposes the failed duties of Benjamin Ruff and other members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, whilst simultaneously questioning the responsibility of the Johnstown folk who were concerned about the safety of the dam but complacently trusted the wealthy, powerful club members to fulfil their responsibilities. McCullough clearly explains the debate that took place immediately after the flood, on what or whom was to blame for the disaster, by explaining the views of the press, the townspeople and the lawsuits that were filed. McCullough’s view is evident from the sub-title of his book. By placing the word “natural” within quotation marks, McCullough immediately suggests that the flood was unusual to any other, and implies that mankind has displaced its blame onto nature.
The short story “Flood” by Daniel Alarcon, focuses on a town that is “flooded” with gang conflicts and the gangs are the ones who run the townspeople fate, despite what they do to escape the conflicts. In the short story a child is the narrator and although, children are portrayed as innocent; throughout “Flood” the children represent the contrary of that idea and the reader is able to recognize the “young gangster” in them. The setting of the story is significant because it is how the characters identify themselves and who they are as individuals. Whether the characters recognize themselves as gang members or innocent civilians, part of their everyday lives if overruled by the gangs, due to their ongoing conflict and disagreements over territory. Overall, the setting of a story is characterized as the background or environment where the characters live, and “Flood” serves to represent how the setting shapes the narrators lives.
A Flood Hydrograph and the Factors That Affect its Form A flood hydrograph is a graph of two axis, 'discharge' and 'time'. Plotted on the graph is the amount of discharge over a period of time. By looking at a hydrograph, a lot of information and data can be gathered about the river, the precipitation, the surrounding area and vegetation etc. The gradient, height and length of a line can tell you a lot of this information. There are many different factors that can affect the appearance and shape of a hydrograph.
What causes fascination? Perhaps it is our inherent curiosity of the unknown. Why then, do we often marvel at the most mundane of phenomena? Wherein lies the secret to this sensation of phenomenal wonder - the ability to perceive the ordinary with a unique sensual acuity? I cannot claim to have this aforementioned acuity, but I have endeavored on many occasions to hunt for the intriguing in what is plain - to experience ‘phenomenal wonder’.
... the use of basic and effective rainwater harvesting technologies. Coca-Cola has installed these technologies in over 200 locations to assist in recharging aquifers. (Case against Coca-Cola Kerala, n.d.)
In, Noah and the flood, god’s punishment of destroying the world with a flood, I believe was justified. It was justified because the lord saw the earth filled with evil, which lead him to think about a consequence for human creatures. The lord felt sick of his creation even stating, “ Every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil”. The lord was referring to his human creation showing how furious he was towards these creatures that lead to him to create the flood. The usage of the flood in my opinion was a great way to eliminate human creatures because this caused them to suffer and drown to death. The lord didn’t just want to kill them instantaneously but make them think of the sins they conducted, while they drowned. When
Causes and Prevention of the Bangladesh Floods Bangladesh is a small less economically developed country situated in Southern Asia. It is mostly surrounded by its neighbour India although it does share an Eastern border with Myanmar (Burma) and to the south it faces the Bay of Bengal. It is the world’s largest delta with a total area of over 148 000 square kilometres which is just slightly smaller than England and Wales. Its population however is more than double that of the whole of the UK at over 126 million people. This makes Bangladesh’s population density over 850 people per sq km.