Episode 1 Living Dangerously

The British weather is a constant topic of conversation.

Often unpredictable, it's now having an even bigger effect

on our lives.

Dangerous floods threaten our homes,

forest fires devastate our countryside

and savage storms ravage our coast lines.

Today, we find out what happens when Britain gets hit by freak weather.

We see the stories of people's lives

who've been turned upside-down by the totally unexpected.

And we show you how to protect yourself, your home and your family from disaster.

Welcome to Living Dangerously.

We've all seen the terrible headlines

of hurricanes, flooding and storm damage.

But what's it really like when extreme weather wrecks your life?

Well, today we hear two more incredible stories

of catastrophe and survival.

Coming up on Living Dangerously:

floods in the Cornish village of Boscastle

leave one woman facing her worst nightmare.

'I didn't know where my husband or son were.'

I didn't know whether anyone might lose their life, in fact, because it was that scary.

And a south London family house is literally swallowed up by the earth.

I just said, "I think our house is falling down!"

With home video, actual footage and reconstruction,

we show what happened during these real-life weather events.

This quaint and tranquil spot on the north Cornish coast

is Boscastle, an unspoilt village

that boasts a pristine medieval harbour and a pretty river.

It was these picture-postcard qualities

that attracted the Upton family from Doncaster

who came to visit in August 2004.

'We loved it.'

We felt it was typically Cornish, it was quite quaint.

It was all very pleasant.

My dad fancied going down into Boscastle for a look around.

It was one place we'd never been.

'The weather had been promising.'

I only had flip-flops on and shorts

and an open shirt.

And so we thought we were in for a good warm day.

Barbara Upton, her husband Tony and son John

had planned a relaxing day exploring the coastal village.

But one of the worst flash floods this country has ever seen

was about to hit this seaside village,

causing hundreds to fear for their lives

and leaving homes, cars and businesses destroyed.

The weather forecast for that day was heavy, sometimes torrential, rain.

But the morning was bright and the Uptons made the most of it.

'It was gloriously warm and sunny'

so we had a walk round the harbour and on the cliff.

When it got a bit black and cloudy,

we went for something to eat in the cafe,

at which point it started to rain.

It was almost torrential rain. The heavens opened. No warning at all.

Everyone was screaming about outside

trying to find somewhere dry to jump into.

We thought it would be a quick shower and that would be it.

The rain fell steadily.

But even in August, it wasn't particularly unusual to have a rainy day by the Cornish seaside.

So, a couple of hours later,

Mum and Dad decided to brave the elements

and continue with their plans.

When Tony and I decided to go to the harbour,

John decided he didn't want to get wet any more

and he was going to stay in the car and listen to music

and just relax and chill out.

Being 14, I wasn't that bothered about walking around a small town

so I thought I'd go back to the car, put my headphones in and just relax.

I thought, "They'll be back in 20 or 25 minutes."

John was now half a mile away from his parents at the top of the village.

Little did he know that his decision to separate from them

would have such serious implications.

Back down in the village, all eyes were on the River Valency

which flows through Boscastle.

After well over two hours of intense rainfall,

the amount of water flowing into the river increased dramatically,

causing the river to flow fuller and faster than before.

It seemed to be welling up all the time.

As soon as it started overflowing and covering the banks,

we made our way up to the bridge

to have a look and watch it coming down the buildings that were there.

Locals and holidaymakers alike had gathered to witness the spectacle.

Water levels were rising

and rain streaming down the steep sides of the surrounding valley

only swelled the river further.

But as Tony and Barbara arrived at the bridge,

fascination was about to turn to alarm.

By this time it was actually very cold and wet.

I had a small umbrella with me which wasn't doing a great deal

but I kept it up, out of habit, I think!

And when I turned, I saw the water rushing down the village.

By now, Boscastle had suffered three hours of continuous rainfall,

and it was too much for this straining river.

Its banks burst and millions of gallons of water gushed through the village centre.

With water overflowing onto the streets,

the Uptons knew the situation had rapidly worsened.

Immediately they became concerned for their son

who was back in the car park, right next to the river.

My first thought was for John.

And so Tony said I was to stay there

and he would go and make sure John was all right in the car in the car park.

So that's what happened.

By that time, the water was up to Tony's calves.

Meanwhile, back in the car,

John was listening to music, unaware the car park was becoming flooded.

I was a bit hungry so I thought I'd go to the boot of the car

and I stepped out of the car and I was knee-deep in water,

which was quite a shock!

My parents weren't there. I thought, "What's going on?"

People were panicking, grabbing all their stuff,

trying to run, trying to get their cars out of the car park.

Being 14, I didn't really know what to do.

I was at a bit of a loss. You don't expect that to happen on holiday.

I thought I'd try and get to the highest place possible.

I couldn't get out of the car park or even walk through it.

My best bet was to get on top of the car. It was the driest place I could find at that point.

I grabbed my bag with my belongings in it and the car keys and sat on the car

and just hoped and prayed everything would be all right.

Events now moved incredibly swiftly.

Many of the main roads into town became impassable.

Some of the village's stone walls began to collapse.

As the cars began to float in the flooded car park,

coastguards and emergency services received their first 999 calls from the public.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Ted Simpson was alerted

and made his way to the stricken village.

The weather in Truro was bright sunshine. Nice conditions.

But as I made my way to the north coast,

I noticed the sky started to darken

and as I reached the Boscastle area,

it was just a mass of black clouds with lightning through the clouds.

The rain was absolutely torrential. I've never seen rain like it.

Although all coastal towns are prone to high rainfall,

thanks to the sea air's high moisture content,

this was a freakish downpour.

But three factors made the problem worse. First,

the hills around the village which were forcing the air to rise and release more rain.

Second, conflicting wind currents that kept the bad weather stationary,

and third, Boscastle's old drainage system

was blocked by rocks washed down from the hills

causing the water to back up.

SIREN WAILS

With rescue crews speeding to the village, the flash flooding was wreaking havoc.

Raging torrents of water from the intense rain and swollen river

were pouring through the streets.

As roads were swept away,

fire and ambulance crews were confronted with huge amounts of debris

swept along by the floods.

The scale of this incident more or less covered Boscastle as a village.

There were a significant number of houses that were flooded

and a lot of houses were in danger of collapse.

Meanwhile, Barbara was still waiting anxiously by the bridge.

Tony didn't materialise at all, by which time the water I was standing in was ankle deep.

And I began to see things floating down the street.

At that point, Tony was wading through the submerged roads in search of son, John.

He was still in the car park, perched on the top of the car fearing for his life.

At that point, cars were just rolling down the car park.

One car was on its side.

Water had taken it and it was travelling down further.

John's car was on slightly higher ground than other vehicles

and so hadn't budged. Yet.

But as the water's speed and depth increased,

so did his chances of being swept away.

I realised I really wasn't in a very good predicament at all.

I hoped something was gonna happen as quick as possible

cos at any point I could have been washed down with the other cars.

It could have just gone.

Coming up on Living Dangerously:

in the midst of one of Britain's worst ever natural disasters,

will a mother's worst nightmare become a reality?

Am I going to see my son, at 14,

be washed away in my vehicle?

On the outskirts of south London lies the town of Bromley in leafy Kent.

Just a 20-minute commute into central London,

it's a popular suburb filled with pristine family homes.

But beneath the suburban idyll

lurks a clear and present danger.

Over hundreds of years, that most ordinary of British weather conditions, the rain,

is dramatically affecting what goes on far below the surface of the ground.

Across Britain, millions of houses have been built on layers of clay.

Or, like in Bromley, on chalk.

But years and years of ordinary rain have made these layers unstable

and put some homes at a real risk of subsidence.

Eve Shepherd was oblivious to the dangers of the underlying chalk

when she decided to make Bromley her home.

I've lived in south London all my life, which is 58 years.

We had a three bedroomed.

And this was a nice quiet area

and our children had left home

so this suited us better.

I like it to look nice.

New bathroom, new kitchen.

Like any property when you move in. You want it how you want to do it.

In June 2003, Eve and her husband Terry found their dream home -

a three-bedroomed semi with a garage in Bromley.

But little did they know that as a result of years of unrelenting British rain,

on April 11 2006, this perfect pad would literally fall to pieces around them.

I'm catching up with Eve to find out what happened.

-Hi, Eve.

-Welcome.

-Nadia.

-Thank you for having me.

-You're welcome.

Eve, take me back to that morning.

Phew. Um... About ten past four in the morning,

we heard a crackling sound.

We didn't think any more of it.

Went back to bed. Two or three minutes later,

we heard an almighty noise. My husband got up and put the lights on.

And as he did that,

the plaster above the door and the windows started to crack.

-What did you think at that moment?

-I didn't think anything.

I think Terry knew...

Had an idea something wasn't quite right,

but didn't want to alarm me too much.

As we were coming down the stairs,

the wall started to crack as well

and split open.

I phoned 999.

Who had you phoned when you phoned 999?

You phone 999 and they say to you, "What service?"

And I went, "I'm not sure!"

That's what I was thinking. I wouldn't know what service to ask for!

I just said, "I think our house is falling down."

The operator at the other end just said, "Get out as soon as possible."

You just think it's a bad dream.

We've gone along to our neighbours and woken them because we didn't know what was happening.

They thought I'd had one too many to drink!

23 metres under their house is a layer of chalk,

which is a soft, powdery limestone

that can slowly dissolve from hundreds, if not thousands, of years

of acid rainwater.

Cavities called swallow holes can form underground

and open up to suck in everything lying on top of it.

Unbeknown to the Shepherds,

their house was sitting directly on one of these holes

and was being held up by little more than a huge strip of sand.

Soon after Eve and Terry were first woken by strange noises,

the emergency services turned up.

The fire brigade arrived about half past four.

They'd made us leave the pavement

and go into the road because they didn't know what was happening.

The fire-fighters kept everyone out on the road

until they could call out a building surveyor

from the local council to assess the situation.

'The borough surveyor came about seven.'

He entered the property with Terry and the chief fire officer. They'd gone up the stairs.

And they came out and said, "You've got five minutes to pick up what you can."

What did you feel in that moment?

Nothing.

-Still the shock.

-There's nothing you can do.

I mean,

we actually knew, once he said that,

that the house was going to come down.

There's that question that sometimes people play.

"If your house was on fire, what would be the things you would save?"

And you were really put in that position.

"You're gonna lose your home. Go in. Five minutes."

What on earth did you all get?

Louise, my youngest daughter, went in and picked up my late mum's ashes.

Underwear, clothes, a little bit of jewellery

and stuff that the girls had done when they were smaller.

Jewellery you can replace,

but my mum's ashes...

You can't replace those, can you, if they went.

Is that all you managed to get from a lifetime's-worth of possessions?

That's hard.

The British acidic rainfall had worn away the chalk

far down under the Shepherds' home.

It couldn't hold up any more and the house was beginning to fall into a huge swallow hole.

These underground cavities can go unnoticed for years

until a trigger opens them up.

The authorities could never tell the Shepherds exactly what caused the collapse.

The ground was so precariously balanced on top of the giant hole beneath,

that heavy rain, flash floods,

drought or even a train rushing past

could have triggered this type of subsidence.

Once you'd got all the stuff that you could out of the house, what happened?

Nothing, really.

A lot of noise, a lot of rumbling.

So it's just a case of waiting.

Every time there was a rumble,

something happened.

And then you'd see a crack appear

where the bricks had been dislodged.

You'd look again and the drainpipe has moved.

Another rumble, a window is all lop-sided.

And this went on for a couple of hours.

By now, it was five-and-a-half hours

since Eve and Terry were rudely awakened by strange noises.

And the inevitable was about to happen.

A neighbour took me in. Cup of coffee and that.

Because they knew something was gonna happen

because of how the house was falling.

About 20 past, 25 past nine,

and then you heard an almighty bang.

And that is when my neighbour said,

opened the door she must have done,

"The front of the house has gone."

Like a house made of matchsticks,

Eve and Terry's home began to fall apart.

The front facade collapsed and their living room and bedrooms were exposed.

With the debris and their personal possessions sucked into the hole that had opened in the ground.

By now, Eve plucked up the courage to take a look at what was going on.

That's when I came out and saw the whole front and it carried on rumbling

and every time a rumble,

the hole seemed to appear, get bigger

and bigger.

There was no hope for the Shepherds' house.

Together with their neighbours, they watched helplessly as it sank into the ground before their eyes.

There was a loud crack and the corner of the house collapsed completely.

You could see straight inside the house

which was really quite scary at the time.

It was more or less the whole lounge. The TV had gone into it.

And an armchair had gone into it.

So literally the hole was devouring your house.

Swallowing our house up.

When it actually fell, you could see all through the ground floor

and half of the top floor.

You could see our bed hanging out in our bedroom

and in the small bedroom there was a single bed hanging out.

Everything was just all tilted to one side.

What was that like, to watch that?

Strange.

As I said before, you can't stop it.

It's just something that happened

and you've got to wait until it stops.

Coming up on Living Dangerously:

After seeing their home being sucked into the earth,

the Shepherds witness the rest of it being destroyed completely.

And could the weather affect the house where you live?

We tell you what you need to know.

In August 2004,

one of the worst flash floods in recent British history

devastated the Cornish village of Boscastle.

Homes, roads and businesses were destroyed

and hundreds of lives put at risk.

Phone lines went down and power cut out.

It was one of the worst disasters

fire brigade deputy chief Ted Simpson had ever encountered.

I got a briefing from the incident commander

who told me the situation.

He told me how bad it was,

the scale of the operation.

Houses were collapsing around fire-fighters and residents,

there were about six helicopters in the air, plucking people off roofs.

The rescue operation was in full swing but the Upton family had become separated.

Barbara's son John was stranded on the top of the family car

in a flooded car park,

and her husband Tony was on his way to find him.

As Barbara waited anxiously for them to return,

she had no idea whether they were even still alive.

'None of us knew how this was going to end.

'We didn't know where we were going to go.'

I didn't know what I personally was going to do.

I didn't know where my husband or son were.

I didn't know whether anyone might lose their life, in fact,

because it was that scary.

Dad Tony had managed to fight his way through the floods

to his parked car where he was reunited with his son, John.

They'd been wading through the water onto higher ground.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town,

Mum Barbara was about to witness the most terrifying scenes

that would leave her fearing even more for her family.

And then vehicles began to rush past.

She was fraught with worry that the family car could be swept down the river

with her son John trapped inside it.

The powers of nature had turned on this tiny village.

By now the flash flooding in Boscastle was wreaking havoc

throughout the town.

Over 100 cars were swept away

and 32 ended up in the open sea.

It was a very anxious time.

"Am I going to see my son, at 14,

"be washed away in my vehicle?"

I think that's one of the reasons why I didn't move.

I was transfixed to the spot

because I felt I needed to know, one way or the other,

what had happened to my own son.

But things had suddenly taken a turn for the worse for John and Tony

in the waterlogged car park.

Due to rising flood waters, father and son had become separated again.

John had to take refuge on another car roof

while Tony on safe ground was left powerless to help.

In this situation where all the water was coming down,

you can't do anything. You can't fight it.

Once you've got something which is getting on about knee height,

you don't have a... You don't have much of a chance

with water travelling at that speed.

But luckily, help was at hand.

Emergency vehicles and rescue helicopters raced to the scene.

In the nick of time, the fire brigade fought their way through the floods

and joined forces with local bystanders to get to John.

They made a human chain, there must have been 14 or 15 of them.

They managed to reach the car and they grabbed me and my bag

and they passed me along each other

until I was on solid, dry ground.

With Tony and John now safe, their thoughts turned to Barbara.

The one thing that really hit me was, "Where's my mum?"

Your mum's always there for you, and she wasn't. I didn't know where she was.

It was three hours since the river burst its banks

and the storms were finally showing signs of receding as the evening began.

John and Tony were still fretting about Barbara's wellbeing.

But back in the centre of the village,

Barbara was benefitting from the kindness of fellow holidaymakers

who offered her a bed in their rented accommodation

outside the reach of the flood.

The lady, Patsy, who I'd been talking to suggested I go back with them.

There was nothing we could do there.

Everyone was tired and exhausted and in a state of shock.

And I think I just followed.

And they took me in for the night.

They made sure I'd got a change of clothing and that sort of thing.

As police and the fire brigade carried on working

to bring any casualties to safety,

shelters for the survivors sprang up around the town.

It was basically a case of staying there

and waiting for any word if anybody had heard where my mum was.

That was the worst part, the waiting.

The waiting really gets to you.

Taking refuge in a local leisure centre,

John and Tony faced a long night,

frantic with worry that Barbara may have been swept away and killed in the flood.

It was comforting to be around other people who'd been in the same situation.

We could comfort each other, tell each other stories

and, you know, just relax in the fact that you're not on your own.

There are other people going through the same thing as you.

And that did give you strength when you were waiting.

When I tried to find out what was going on,

it proved to be impossible for quite a long time.

There were no landlines available.

There was no network for mobile phones.

So there was a sense of time stopping, really,

because there was no-one I could talk to about what was going on.

I couldn't find out where the people on the other side of the village had gone or been taken.

So it was just waiting and waiting for time to pass till we could find out something.

With hundreds homeless but thankfully safe and dry,

the potential scale of the disaster was still hitting home

for the emergency services.

As nightfall approached, I still had not one victim of this incident.

But I was worried there were many victims left trapped in buildings

or trapped in the debris.

So overnight I ordered on about 200 body bags because I feared the worst.

As nightfall fell, we decided to suspend operations

because it was just too hazardous.

BARBARA: There wasn't a lot of sleep, I have to say.

I recall sitting up in bed, thinking, praying,

for my family.

It was very, very nerve-wracking. I hardly got any sleep at all.

I couldn't rest.

It was all playing in my mind. I'd shut my eyes

and you'd hear the roaring of the water

and you'd hear the helicopters going over, trying to look for people.

Coming up on Living Dangerously:

after being separated by appalling flash flooding,

the Upton family are finally reunited.

But can they lay to rest the ghost of the Boscastle flood?

It's a bit overwhelming, to say the least.

Back in Bromley, south London,

and the wet British climate has had a devastating effect

on the earth beneath Eve and Tony Shepherd's house.

It's been literally consumed by a massive swallow hole.

This subsidence was caused by years of acid rainfall,

weakening chalk rock that lay beneath the house.

And one cataclysmic morning in April 2006,

the rock gave way, opening up a gaping cavity

that swallowed everything on top of it.

You could see all through the ground floor

and half of the top floor.

You could see our bed hanging out

and everything was all tilted to one side.

But it wasn't just Eve and Terry's property

that the weather was ultimately responsible for wrecking.

Ten days after Eve and Terry's house started to collapse,

their home and three neighbouring houses were demolished

as all were deemed unsafe.

This was their house.

Tests were done on the ground

and the local authority decided to make it safe.

They filled in the cavity to make it solid and laid down a concrete platform

to secure house foundations.

This enabled the four semi-detached properties to be rebuilt

on exactly the same spot.

But it wasn't until January 2008,

17 months after they lost their house,

that Eve and Terry were able to move into their brand-new home,

a replica of what they'd loved before.

But there are still reminders of what seemingly innocent British rainfall

caused that fateful day.

OK, so Eve, where did you first see the hole?

The hole appeared when the front of the house dropped down.

Then with every rumbling it just got bigger and bigger.

Really. And how far over did it spread?

I suppose, say, where you are there.

-So this much?

-A hole.

Wow!

How deep was the hole?

They said, from what they could see,

-they reckoned about 20 foot it had stopped.

-Goodness me!

But everything was just piled on top of it

so it could have been deeper.

We don't know.

Standing here, you wouldn't have an inkling that that carnage went on.

Though I have to say, it's just slightly uneven, isn't it?

I don't know if I feel a little bit nervous standing there!

Blame the builders!

What happened to Eve and Terry's house is thankfully very unusual.

But I'm meeting geologist Dr Tony Cooper

to find out just how concerned we should all be.

Tony, I've just come from Eve's house.

It is phenomenal, what has happened there.

-Is it common?

-From the point of view

that we get one or two a year in the whole country

that affect a property. It's that common.

So for people that are watching now, should they be frightened?

It does occur. It's not going to happen to everybody.

You don't look around and see houses falling down.

If you live on chalk or any of these soluble rocks,

then it's wise to take precautions.

If you get something like a burst water pipe or a leaking drain,

get it fixed fairly quickly

because you may or may not have a hole underneath your house

and adding water and things like that to the ground

can trigger off a collapse.

So to be wise, make sure you don't lose water into the ground.

If you've had a full survey done on your house,

would all this sort of stuff come up?

Well, the house-buyers' packs that get done these days

do include searches of the geological conditions

and that will say whether you've got soluble rocks under your house

and to what degree the geologists have assessed that to be a problem.

It's reassuring to know that you'd be extremely unlucky

to encounter this kind of devastating subsidence,

especially as severe as these examples from around the UK.

Incredibly, this ten-metre-wide crater

opened up overnight.

But what about the more familiar hairline cracks

we see in our properties, caused either by soluble rocks

or the rain-related shrinking and swelling of clay?

If you think you've got subsidence,

you need to check your insurance policy

and then look to notify your insurers

or, if you're still unsure,

speak to a local structural engineer and get his advice.

You need to remember that all buildings move

and that small cracks are to be expected.

Please, I don't want you to get worried about those fine cracks

that appear in the summer and have gone by the end of the winter.

They are to be expected in all houses.

It's been three years since Eve and Terry saw their south London semi

literally swallowed up by the earth.

Insured, they moved into rented accommodation

while their house was rebuilt on the same spot.

Now happily settled in their new home,

Eve's giving me a guided tour.

Eve, everything is absolutely pristine. It's gorgeous now,

isn't it?

-Can we have a look in the kitchen?

-Sure.

-I love looking at kitchens!

Oh, isn't it lovely! It's so light and airy.

-Is this your dream kitchen now?

-Yes, it is.

It's absolutely lovely.

-And this is your bedroom?

-Yes, that's our bedroom.

-All pristine again.

-It's nice and comfortable.

It's what it should be.

It was good to see this plucky lady back in a home she could be proud of

after the nightmare she'd been through.

It shouldn't happen, but it did. There was nothing we could do to stop it.

And our main concern

was nobody got hurt.

Everything else can be rebuilt.

Who would have thought that even seemingly innocent rain

could cause such havoc? You can never predict where the weather will strike next.

In one of the worst British natural disasters in recent times,

a freak flash flood hit the Cornish village Boscastle in August 2004,

leaving complete devastation in its wake

and separating Barbara Upton from her husband and son.

After a difficult night with fellow holidaymakers Mike and Patsy,

Barbara still had no idea whether her family were still alive.

Luckily, the next morning brought heartening news.

Many people had been taken to the local sports centre

and they stayed there overnight.

And eventually someone told us that John and Tony were there.

It was quite a while before we could actually get out of the village.

No-one was being allowed in or out.

So about lunch time, we were able to leave.

Michael and Patsy took me in their car to the sports centre.

It was about 24 hours before we found out where she was.

Then it was another seven or eight hours before she got brought to us.

That was the worst part, knowing she was all right, but waiting for her to come.

When we arrived, there were several people milling about outside.

We pulled up and I just got out of the car.

Somebody must have shouted, "John and Tony".

They came rushing out and there were hugs all round.

I've never been so happy in my life.

I've always been a Mummy's boy, I must admit,

but seeing her and giving her a big hug was the best thing ever.

It's a good feeling!

Yeah, it's a good feeling to be back together again.

When I saw Tony and John again,

the first feeling was a sense of immense relief.

"Thank God they're all right. We're all together."

Also, still a sense of shock

that somehow this lovely little village had been absolutely devastated.

All we wanted to do was go back to our little cottage and be quiet

and reflect, really, and be thankful

that we were all together again.

That day, Boscastle woke up to utter devastation

after being beaten into submission

by some of the worst floods ever seen in Britain in living memory.

100 homes were affected, with four being washed away altogether

by over 400 million gallons of water

rampaging through the village.

But despite all the damaged property and vehicles,

miraculously no-one was seriously injured

and the majority of missing people were reunited with their families

the next day.

However, the people of Boscastle had a long way to go

to rebuild their lives.

Thankfully, Boscastle has only a one in 400 chance of such a flood happening again.

But with millions of us living in flood risk areas,

how can we protect our homes and families?

-MAN:

-If your house is at flood risk, you can register to receive a flood warning

if there's a flood warning service for that location.

A good idea is to prepare a flood plan,

so have things in place for you and your family to do

if you receive a flood warning or think your house is going to flood.

It might be to remove your belongings out of harm's way

to higher ground. Get your medication ready.

All the things you think if your house is gonna flood you need to have quickly.

Today, the Upton family are returning to Boscastle for the first time.

It's been five years since they were caught in the horrifying floods

and finally the time is right to confront difficult memories.

Going back to Boscastle, I think, will be quite cathartic.

There is a ghost, I think, that needs to be laid

and I'm hoping that going back will do that.

We've not been to Cornwall for five years

and I'm looking forward to seeing what they've done with the village.

Because my last memory is of broken roads, wrecked houses and shops,

and it'll be good to see it cleaned up and looking pretty again.

-All right?

-Yes! All right.

'I'd like to go back, just to try and put it behind me.'

It'll be like I can close that chapter of my life

'and live with it because every now and again I will think about it

'and it is quite overwhelming,'

just thinking about all that water.

The car park where John narrowly avoided being swept out to sea

looks very different in the sunlight.

The car will have been virtually there.

So when I came out, all of this, all of it was just water.

It must have been up to there

at the time of when I got on the car.

And, um, it's unreal,

actually imagining that here now.

It just seems... It just seems unfeasible.

You never know how something like this is gonna affect you until you're actually where it happened.

And, um, it's a bit overwhelming,

to say the least.

I just... Yeah. Sorry.

The people of Boscastle have rallied

and the village is now unrecognisable

from those scenes of chaos.

Pubs are full, shopkeepers busy

and visitors flock.

Like any victim of the incredible flash floods that summer day,

the Upton family will never forget what damage the weather can do.

But for now, it's just good to see Boscastle up and running again.

-It looks good now.

-It does look good.

It's beautiful again.

And the sun is shining.

It's not raining.

-No.

-Yeah, much nicer.

Thankfully, all these people survived Britain's extreme weather.

So join us next time for more amazing true stories on Living Dangerously.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd