Quirky flash floods caught out cavers in a system where two people died last year.
Long Churn Cave, Ribblesdale
Extremely localised heavy thunderstorms on Ingleborough, in the Yorkshire Dales, led to a sudden rise in water levels in Long Churn Cave, near Selside, on Sunday. While most of the Dales basked in warm sunshine, 40 minutes’ worth of torrential rain and hail on the fell caused becks to turn from a trickle to a torrent and a party of potholers was trapped in the underground system.
Nine people, including a caving instructor with a group of adults and children, made their way to a higher, drier area of the cave as water levels rose. Members of the Clapham-based Cave Rescue Organisation were called out when it was realised the party was overdue.
John Beavan, duty controller for the incident, said: “The Long Churn incident involved about 30 CRO members, some of whom, arriving in dry and sunny Selside, had to see the water levels to believe that flooding had taken place.”
The rescuers waited until water levels in the cave dropped, before escorting the trapped party, from northern Lancashire and southern Cumbria, to the surface.
Mr Beavan said: “The flood pulse that descended from the Ingleborough basin and into the Long Churn cave system was exceptional. The well equipped group did exactly the right thing in staying in a comparatively dry section of the cave until they were found by our underground team.”
The rescue followed an earlier incident in which a group of walkers from the York area was caught out on Ingleborough’s summit in the thunderstorm with only a picnic blanket for shelter.
They were escorted down the steep path from the fell’s Swine Tail to near Mere Gill, where the CRO’s Land Rover was used to take them back down to the road at Chapel-le-Dale.
Mr Beavan warned: “Conditions on Sunday proved how quickly the weather can change in the Dales. Waterproofs should always be carried – just in case.
“Expect the unexpected!”
In December last year, Caroline Fletcher of Keighley and Stuart Goodwill of Darlington died in flooded Long Churn Cave.
Guest
17 May 2008What is it you said " The well equipped group did exactly the right thing......." Does that include taking 8 year olds underground when thunderstorms have been forecast and by the time they were walking up to the cave there was thunder all around them and the odd flash of lighteing. The sky was dark too. I don't so! When will we start to take responsibility for what we do!
John Forder
17 May 2008I visited the cave system that day, and, as we were leaving, we saw a group ?presumably the one that got into trouble, but I don't know this for sure ??leaving the parking place in the lane as a thunderstorm was raging just a few miles away. There was a chance that the storm would move away, but equally, it could encroach on the catchment area; clearly one cannot predict these things. But surely the prudent course of action is not to go into a flood-prone cave (especially with young children) when there's a storm raging a few miles away. Did the group leader(s) really do the right thing by going there in the first place? Also, was the leader a 'qualified' local CLC holder? If so, they should have known better.
Guest
03 June 2008This was a most unusual and surprising caving incident and thankfully from my understanding absolutely not typical of normal caving trips. Unusual that children as mobile lightening conductors should be taken up hill over exposed moorland in thunder and lightening less than 1 1/2 miles away (yes I counted the time between flash and bang right there on the day). Surprising that they would then be taken into a flood prone cave system by adults made aware of the impending rain.