GCSE Geography AQA A water on the land: flooding in an MEDC Cockermouth
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- Created on: 17-05-15 10:10
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- Flooding in Cockermouth MEDC
- Where?
- Cockermouth is a small market town in Cumbria.
- It is 13km from the coast and is on the western side of the lake district.
- Cockermouth is found at the confluence of the River Derwent and the River Cocker.
- 19th November 2009
- Why?
- The highest ever recorded amount of rain in the UK fell in 24 hours on the hills of the lake district.
- The ground was already really saturated due to a wet Autumn.
- As Cockermouth is at the confluence of 2 rivers, the sheer volume of water overwhelmed the channels and the rivers burst their banks.
- A conveyor of warm, moist air rose over the Cumbrian mountains, cooled and condensed causing heavy rain to fall for 34 hours over the mountains - this is relief rain.
- Impacts
- Floods as high as 2.5m soared down the streets.
- A policeman died as the bridge he was on collapsed.
- over 1300 people were directly affected and many others lost power.
- Emergency services had to rescue people trapped in their homes.
- The Northern part of the town was completely cut off with no services.
- Farmers suffered greatly as livestock were killed, pastures became useless and farm buildings damaged.
- Insurance companies expected the damage to be in excess of over £100m
- Responses
- All 1800 bridges in Cumbria were safety checked before use.
- Most residents homes were flooded with up to 6ft of muddy water and required temporary accomodation
- Flooded buildings were assessed before the owners could re-enter.
- After the flood the main focus was on search and rescue. 200 people had to be airlifted from their houses by RAF helicopters.
- Most roads were so badly damaged they need re-surfacing.
- Where?
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