The 2002 Glasgow Floods were a series of

flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing o ...

s that occurred after

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...

s in the

Scottish Lowlands The Lowlands ( sco, Lallans or ; gd, a' Ghalldachd, , place of the foreigners, ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Lowlands and the Highlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowl ...

in the end of July and beginning of August 2002. The heaviest rainfall fell on the night of Tuesday, 30 July 2002. The East End of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

was the worst affected district of the city, and two hundred people were evacuated from their homes in Greenfield and

Shettleston Shettleston ( sco, Shuttlestoun, gd, Baile Nighean Sheadna) is a district in the east end of Glasgow in Scotland. Toponymy The origin of the name 'Shettleston' is not clear and, like many place-names of possibly medieval origin, has had a mult ...

on the Tuesday night. The antiquated 19th century

storm drain A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, United States, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to Drainage, drain excess rain and ground water ...

and sewer system in that area, having received minimal investment from

Scottish Water Scottish Water is a statutory corporation that provides water and sewerage services across Scotland. It is accountable to the public through the Scottish Government. Operations Scottish Water provides drinking water to 2.46 million households ...

, was blamed due to its inability to deal with the high capacity of

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when th ...

. Many of the homes affected were in working class areas, and as a result, did not have contents insurance. The

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

, Glasgow to Edinburgh via Carstairs Line and Queen Street Station were closed as a result of flooding and

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

s. A number of roads were also badly affected by flooding in

Sighthill Sighthill may refer to: * Sighthill, Edinburgh Sighthill is a suburb in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The area is bordered by Broomhouse and Parkhead to the east, South Gyle to the north, the industrial suburb of Bankhead and the Calders ...

Springburn Springburn ( gd, Allt an Fhuairainn) is an inner-city district in the north of the Scottish city of Glasgow, made up of generally working-class households. Springburn developed from a rural hamlet at the beginning of the 19th century. Its indu ...

as well as the main A82 and

A8 Road A8, A08, A 8 or A-8 may refer to: Electronics * ARM Cortex-A8, a processor used in mobile devices * Apple A8, a 64-bit system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. *AMD A8, an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit * Samsung Galaxy A8, various smartpho ...

Buchanan Street Subway Station , style = Glasgow Subway , image = 17-11-15-Glasgow-Subway RR70190.jpg , image_caption = , address = Buchanan Street, Glasgow , country = Scotland , coordinates = , el ...

on the

Glasgow Subway The Glasgow Subway is an underground light metro system in Glasgow, Scotland. Opened on 14 December 1896, it is the fourth-oldest underground rail transit system in Europe after the London Underground, Liverpool's Mersey Railway and the Budapes ...

was closed, although trains continued to run through the station without stopping. Parts of the

Argyle Line The Argyle Line is a suburban railway located in West Central Scotland. The line serves the commercial and shopping districts of Glasgow's central area, and connects towns from West Dunbartonshire to South Lanarkshire. Named for Glasgow's Argyl ...

were also flooded, with low level stations from

Dalmarnock Dalmarnock (, gd, Dail Mheàrnaig) is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated east of the city centre, directly north of the River Clyde opposite the town of Rutherglen. It is also bounded by the Glasgow neighbourhoods of P ...

through to

Exhibition Centre A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

closed for a number of weeks. The water parasite

cryptosporidium ''Cryptosporidium'', sometimes informally called crypto, is a genus of apicomplexan parasitic alveolates that can cause a respiratory and gastrointestinal illness (cryptosporidiosis) that primarily involves watery diarrhea (intestinal cryptosp ...

was discovered in Mugdock Reservoir at

Milngavie Water Treatment Works Milngavie water treatment works (commonly known as The Waterworks) is a Scottish Water-operated water treatment facility located in Milngavie, Scotland. It is primary source of the water for the city of Glasgow (and the Greater Glasgow area) in w ...

on 4 August 2002, as a result of the flooding. Cryptosporidium can cause severe diarrhoea. About 140,000 people in Glasgow were affected, and were told not to drink

tap water Tap water (also known as faucet water, running water, or municipal water) is water supplied through a tap, a water dispenser valve. In many countries, tap water usually has the quality of drinking water. Tap water is commonly used for drinking, ...

without boiling it first. This later led to a major redevelopment of the water treatment works.

References

{{Floods in the United Kingdom (since 2000) Disasters in Glasgow

Flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

Glasgow floods, 2002 Floods 2002 Glasgow floods Glasgow floods 2002 floods in the United Kingdom

See also

References