Grimsby was one of the northern effected areas but sustained no deaths. Their main worry was for the fishing fleet ‘Liberia’ out in the North Sea which eventually staggered back on the following Tuesday with severe damage. Grimsby itself was scattered with debris, buildings were destroyed and streets were turned into rivers. The North Coates R.A.F. Station also had to be temporarily evacuated.
Kings Lynn was instantly hit with rising water levels and as Police tried to warn residents nobody realised how instantly a large wall of water had flooded the streets.
The flood spread half a mile away to
South Lynn Estate drowning 15 people
and making a 1500 homeless.
The River Orwell at Felixstowe burst
its banks flooding a 2-mile area. 39
people died on an estate as they hit
with the full force of the flooding.
Acres of Deben Valley were ruined
and many sheep, cattle and horses were
lost.
In the Thames area 22 thousand people were trapped by the raging floods and many cattle were drowned. At the Royal Naval Dockyard submarines sank and frigates capsized as the dry docks were flooded with an immense amount of water.
Human Action Disaster
The human action disaster that I have decided to write about is the Lockerbie Crash.
On December 21st 1988 flight Pan AM 103 flew from London Heathrow to New York, the aircraft carried 259 people, of which 16 were crewmembers. None of the 259 people on board the plane survived; also 11 residents of Lockerbie were killed. Major parts of the aircraft fell on the town of Lockerbie with other parts landing in the countryside to the east of the town. Later parts of the plane were found 130km away on the east coast. Scottish Police spent months searching for parts of the aircraft. In July 1990 the concluding report was published stating that the crash was caused by the ‘the detonation of an improvised explosive device located in a baggage container.
Suspicion fell upon two Libyan Air Officials, in Valletta at the time, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, 46 years old. Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, 42 years old.
The trail itself was held in Netherlands, in January 2001 Al Megrahi was jailed for life for his part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty by three judges at a specially convened Scottish court in the Netherlands. Even though flight Pan Am 03 crashed in December 1988 the trail took 13 years from beginning to end.
Technological Disaster
The final disaster that I have chosen to write about is the Soviet nuclear power complex, Chernobyl.
At the time of the accident, on April 26th 1986, the Soviet Nuclear Power Programme was based upon two types of reactors. The Chernobyl Power Complex consisted of four nuclear reactors with two more under construction. The two types of reactors were the WWER, a pressurised light-water reactor and the RBMK, a graphite moderated light water reactor. The Chernobyl Power Complex used the RBMK design.
The day before the incident a routine shutdown on one reactor was to take place but they decided to see if the slowing turbine could provide enough power until the diesel supply started to work. The aim was to see if cooling could continue with lower power levels.
At 11pm it was decided that the power
levels would be reduced further. But due
to operational error the power was reduced
by 33 times what it should have been.
By 1.00am on the 26th the power was
made to a stable level by freeing the
control rods manually. Although a
minimum of 30 rods was required to
retain control only 6-8 rods were used
during the test. The reason for the rods
being withdrawn was for an increase in
power but it meant that if there was a
power surge it would take 20 seconds
to lower the rods again, but continuation
was agreed.
An increase in coolant flow started and resulted in steam pressure dropping. The remaining rods had to be removed to maintain constant power. By this time operators reduced the flow of feedwater to maintain steam pressure resulting in less cooling water reaching the reactor. This loss of cooling caused a great instability and increased the normal power output by an estimated 100 times.
The sudden increase in heat caused the fuel to rupture and react with the water resulting in a steam explosion that destroyed the reactor core. 2 to 3 seconds later a second explosion added to the destruction.
Post accident assessments laid most blame on the operator but later assessments shared the blame between the operator and the design faults of the reactor.
The explosions sent radioactive debris about 1km into the sky and clouds of steam and dust began to rise. A great mass of fire was breaking out and many firefighters lost their lives trying to extinguish them. By 5.00am the fire was out. On May the 9th a concrete barrier was to be built to prevent the any further escape of radiation. It was too late because wind directions had already taken radiation to surrounding areas and even neighbouring countries.
Today people are still being born with disabilities and illnesses due to this major accident.
Conclusion
In conclusion with all three accidents in some form or another they were down to human errors. Chernobyl was down lack of safety and operating at dangerous levels. The Lockerbie crash was caused by an explosive device in the luggage. Finally, although the floods were not down to human error, coastal flooding is always a possibility and stronger prevention measures could have been used.
Bibliography
For this assignment I obtained my information from the Internet and handouts that I was given during lesson. I used various websites such as www.bbc.co.uk and www.guardian.co.uk.
