Boscastle Flood

Insurance claims flood in from Boscastle

Few people will have missed one of the most dramatic news stories of the summer - Britain's biggest ever rescue operation to save residents, visitors, property and livestock trapped in the Cornish coastal village of Boscastle by flash floods that caused millions of pounds of damage.

A 3m wall of water crashed through the village when almost 8cms of rain fell in just a couple of hours.

Cars in the harbour car park were thrown into the sea, properties destroyed, trees uprooted and dozens of people were airlifted to safety by seven rescue helicopters.

The scale of the loss is still hard to measure, but the effect on the local people has been totally devastating - many have lost their homes, businesses and lifetime's investment. It will take a long time for the village to recover. The harbour area is a major construction site.

A proactive approach to claims

Our insurance client knew it could expect a deluge of its own once policyholders started to phone in - so it worked with CWMC to make contact first, calling every customer within the Boscastle area to offer help and advice with making a claim.

This was not entirely straightforward - the telephone lines were down and many people had been moved to temporary accommodation. However, CWMC staff remained in the village for several extremely busy days to coordinate the insurance company's activities, to offer on-site assistance, track down the people who had been uncontactable, and to ensure that cheques were delivered to local homes.