Author Topic: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?  (Read 13128 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline mondie

  • Ad Free Member
  • *
  • Posts: 113
Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« on: April 01, 2018, 10:56:37 pm »
We moved to the area last year and have come to hear about the floods of 1992 when the town was flooded, presumably by a combination of a king tide and weather conditions coinciding. There doesn't appear to be much information or any photos on the net about this flood so I was hoping to hear from locals who lived through that day. How bad was it and what combination of factors caused it? As we grow keener on Llandudno and start to look at houses this is something we have wondered more about lately. Certainly, insurances are damn expensive presumably from a real or perceived risk.

Incidentally, just today I was chatting with my wife about buying a house on the side of the Orme so we had a bit of elevation when this came up in a search  :o

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/1993-great-orme-floods-video-12431592

The £7bn tidal project that was featured in this paper raises the prospect of the MSL rising 1-2m in the next 100 yrs, if true the town could soon be below sea level necessitating some very expensive sea defences.

Cheers,
Simon

Offline Bri Roberts

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 3099
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2018, 03:51:03 am »
It was on the 10 June 1993 and some of us will never forget our experience.

Do a search on here for ‘The Great Flood’ for further information.

Here is a video clip.

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/1993-great-orme-floods-video-12431592


Offline Bri Roberts

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 3099
Re: Llanduno floods of 10 June 1993.
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2018, 07:15:38 am »
This is the view, mondie, when I arrived teatime at Llandudno Junction Railway Station.

Amazing how this disaster will soon be 25 years old.

Offline Ian

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 8949
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2018, 08:42:43 am »
The cause was primarily exceptionally heavy downpour from a storm cell over Llandudno, which spewed roughly 4.5" of water in two hours and poor design of the Marine Drive around the Orme, which had no storm drain-type gaps to allow exceptional rainfall to pour through and into the sea.  I was hit just as I attempted to drive up to a friend's place on Llys Helig and the road was simply funnelling immense quantities of water along with a lot of debris into Llandudno. There was a fire engine, with the water rising steadily above its wheel arches, with the fire crew sitting on the top parked at the Paddling pool, where a pumping station had apparently succumbed to the water inflow. I'd also had to rescue my wife who'd been in a hairdresser's in Garden St, where the water had risen up the glass door, exerting so much pressure on it that the door couldn't be opened until a fireman, armed with an axe, opted for the easy option.  Certainly sticks in the memory.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline mondie

  • Ad Free Member
  • *
  • Posts: 113
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2018, 10:57:08 am »
Thanks for the reply  $good$

Was there only one flood due to extreme rainfall and not sea/tide conditions? I must have caught the wrong end of the stick on that one. Seems like the kind of event that could happen anywhere if you were unlucky, I wonder why we get penalised so hard on property insurance. I had assumed it was due to my wrong version of events, thanks for the clarification Ian & Bri.

Cheers

Offline Ian

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 8949
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2018, 11:02:06 am »
I believe that in days of yore the Great Orme became an island from time to time. But this was just down to a torrential downpour.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline SteveH

  • Management Board Member & Newsgroup Editor
  • *
  • Posts: 12989
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2018, 11:29:50 am »
Was there only one flood due to extreme rainfall and not sea/tide conditions? I must have caught the wrong end of the stick on that one. Seems like the kind of event that could happen anywhere if you were unlucky, I wonder why we get penalised so hard on property insurance. I had assumed it was due to my wrong version of events, thanks for the clarification Ian & Bri.
Cheers

We have the same trouble with insurance, when buying our house it was pointed out that we are in a risk area, I believe that flood risk is now part of the solicitors search when buying a house.

This link might help you.....   type in your postcode    (you will like this.....not a lot)   ;)

http://conwyfloodmap.hrwallingford.co.uk/#HowToUse

Offline Nemesis

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 6276
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2018, 12:00:18 pm »
I have in my possession a booklet called 'Once Upon A Nimbus' written by local people about their experiences the night of the flood. Where it would be obtainable from I do not know, mine was given to me by a neighbour, but perhaps the library might have a copy.
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline squigglev2

  • Member
  • Posts: 161
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #8 on: April 02, 2018, 12:12:24 pm »
Seems like the kind of event that could happen anywhere if you were unlucky,
I had an email exchange with a brother that touched on that a couple of months ago.  His view was that where he is, a little north of Brisbane, a downpour like the one that hit Llanduno would not be considered exceptional (and presumably, they have systems to cope) but it would be an awful lot of water in a short time by UK standards...

As for us and the flood, we were safely in one of the higher points of Bryn Pydew.  My mother did get her car stuck on Queens Road, I think near the North Wales Medical Centre though.


Offline mondie

  • Ad Free Member
  • *
  • Posts: 113
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #9 on: April 02, 2018, 01:00:35 pm »
Was there only one flood due to extreme rainfall and not sea/tide conditions? I must have caught the wrong end of the stick on that one. Seems like the kind of event that could happen anywhere if you were unlucky, I wonder why we get penalised so hard on property insurance. I had assumed it was due to my wrong version of events, thanks for the clarification Ian & Bri.
Cheers

We have the same trouble with insurance, when buying our house it was pointed out that we are in a risk area, I believe that flood risk is now part of the solicitors search when buying a house.

This link might help you.....   type in your postcode    (you will like this.....not a lot)   ;)

http://conwyfloodmap.hrwallingford.co.uk/#HowToUse

That is a very useful link thanks, Steve. It confirms that we are indeed renting a property in the 2nd most at risk zone  'Floods in 1-20 and 1-50 years'. When you start to eliminate parts of the town that has a risk at '1 in 500 to 1 in 1000 years', you aren't left with much really.

It would be interesting to understand how the water table under the town works and how it may be affected by rising sea levels and in turn, the flood map in coming decades.

Thanks for the helpful replys :)

Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13885
Re: Llanduno floods of 10 June 1993.
« Reply #10 on: April 02, 2018, 04:48:01 pm »
This is the view, mondie, when I arrived teatime at Llandudno Junction Railway Station.

Amazing how this disaster will soon be 25 years old.

That looked pretty grim Bri, how on earth did you get home from there?        I talked to a guy called Phil who owned the newsagents across the road on the corner of Broad Street and he was trapped in the building and the water was rising in the shop higher than outside the building.  Luckily an intervention by a passer by saved him and it was similar to the ordeal that Ian's wife had on that same day.  It must have been extremely frightening for the pair of them

Offline Bri Roberts

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 3099
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #11 on: April 02, 2018, 05:59:41 pm »
David M Williams of Llandudno Fire Service put me in a large rowing boat over to the Station Hotel from where I hitched a lift off Jeff Dodd, the Rubbish Removal Man, to the top of Conway Road in CyD and waded from there.

I did a video of the event which CCBC asked to copy for their archives.

Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13885
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #12 on: April 02, 2018, 06:19:55 pm »
Thanks Bri,  that's a day you'll never ever forget.       

Offline Michael

  • Ad Free Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1623
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #13 on: April 03, 2018, 08:33:46 pm »
 I wasn't involved in this flood although I was very very much involved in the far more serious Towyn/Kinmel Bay flood two years before. However there was a bit of warning before the Llandudno. Not certain but I think it was on a Thursday evening. In those days I used to drive a coach carrying mainly mature ladies from Rhyl to Conwy to play bingo. Bear in mind that to these ladies bingo was an absolute essential of life. Nothing would stop them. But on this wednesday there was a most uncanny feeling in the air around Conwy, difficult to explain. I suppose the closest would be to compare it to the feeling before a thunder storm, only worse. This was 24 hours before the storm came. Several of the ladies stated they were not coming on the next night because they had this feeling . Were they all psychic or was there really something in the air?





Offline squigglev2

  • Member
  • Posts: 161
Re: Llanduno floods of 1992/3 - who lived through them?
« Reply #14 on: April 03, 2018, 08:41:26 pm »
Interesting ormegolf.  While I do believe that one can feel an event like a thunderstorm is in the air, I can't actually think of anyone I knew feeling something was up preceding this event.  That of course is not to in anyway argue with what you witnessed.