Towyn’s Devastating Floods

By Paul Homewood

Just four weeks after the Burns Day storm, another massively powerful storm brought devastating floods to Towyn, in North Wales.

The video is well worth watching:

The combination of strong onshore winds, low pressure and spring tides caused severe flooding and damage.

North-westerly gales and a deep low pressure raised the sea level by 1.5m (4.9ft), creating a storm surge in the Irish Sea.

This surge, combined with a high tide and large waves, overwhelmed the sea defences.

The worst affected area was the coastal stretch from Pensarn to Kinmel Bay.

In Towyn, the sea breached a railway embankment and hundreds of tonnes of sea-water rushed through the streets flooding hundreds of homes and caravans.

About 5,000 people had to be evacuated in the 1990 floods

The flooding happened without warning and people stranded in their homes by the floods had to be rescued.

About 5,000 people had to be evacuated and most could not return home for months afterwards.

Others had to wait years to move back into their properties.

Experts believe that this was a one in a 500 to 1,000 year event and the town took a number of years to fully recover from the devastation.

Elsewhere, the severe gales caused structural damage, uprooted trees and claimed the lives of 14 people across the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51630850

There’s another home made video below. It’s 15 minutes long, but worth watching the first couple of minutes, especially the scary sight of the sea crashing over the sea wall.