On 16th August 2004, heavy showers, the remanents of Hurricane Alex, developed across the South west of England and rained on Boscastle Valley. At its peak, the rainfall reached nearly 25mm in a 15 minute period.

At 12.39 the Environment Agency, issued a floodwatch or the Boscastle Valley as rain continues to pour into the valley, causing the River Valency to begin to breach its banks at 15.30. The first calls of people trapped by flood water in the Valency Valley reached the Cornwall County Fire Brigade at 15.36. Ten minutes later, the Boscastle Cliff Rescue Team report rising water levels, with reports suggesting the river rose 2 metres within the last hour.

As an hour passes from 15.53 fire services from Lanceston, St.Austell, Bodmin, Padstow and Truro are mobilised to Boscastle. The Coastguard were informed that the situation in Boscastle is bad at 16.02 with roads flooded and RAF Kinloss is put on standby. Additional firefighters, from Delabole Station are mobilised to Boscastle arriving at 16.15 as the water appears to start dropping.

The Port Isaac inshore lifeboat launches at 16.17 and five minutes later two rescue helicopters are scrambled from RAF Chivenor and RNAS Culdrose.

The Police closed all roads to Boscastle at 16.30 as floodwater rides through Boscastle car Park and enters the Visitor Centre. The Bude Inshore Liftboat launches five minutes later and Cornwalls air ambulance is requested to standby for casualties. The Police Heicopter over Boscastle reports severe flooding by 16.52 as the floods approach their peak at 17.00 and cars are being washed out of the car park.

At 17.10, Captain Pete McLelland's report aboard RNAS Culdrose helicopter 193 to RAF Kinloss reads:
"Pass to all emergency services. This is a major incident, repeat major incident. We request all the standby aircraft available and all available land-based emergency crews as we are in danger of losing Boscastle and all the people in it."

RAF Chivenor, St Mawgan and RNAS Culdrose each scramble another helicopter at 17.18. Five minutes later, rescue helicopters begin winching people to safety from the buildings as the additional aircraft hurry to Boscastle.

By 18.00 RNAS Culdorse helicopter 193 has lifted 15 people to safety, 12 from the Visitors Centre roofs and flown to the football pitch. At the same time, Portland's Coastguard helicopter is scrambled.

The first fire brigade relief crews reach Boscastle around 21:00 as the helicopters begin to return to their bases with over 150 people airlifted or assisted to safe areas by the emergency services. Cliff rescue teams and lifeboats continue to search for survivors overnight.

16 People are unaccounted for by Tuesday 17th August, but this is later resolved.

Despite the gravity of the situation, there were no fatalities during these floods, with only one reported injury, a broken thumb. Material damage howveer was extensive with 84 wrecked cars recovered and more still unfound, nearly sixty properties flooded including four which had to be demolished and infrastructure damage reaching a cost of upto £2 million to North Cornwall District Council.

The seven helicopters involved lifted a thousand people to safety, including several firefighters. The Cornwall County Fire Brigade contribution to the rescue operations and subsequent clean-up involved twenty-nine of the thirty-one stations in the county.