A man had to jump from his capsizing narrowboat as it was swallowed by a ‘sinkhole’ following a canal breach in Shropshire.
The banks of Llangollen Canal collapsed at around 4am on Monday morning and water flooded out, pulling a huge 160ft wide chunk of canal bed with it and taking two boats down into the hole left behind with another teetering on the edge.
A total of 15 residents had to be evacuated and a large section of canal completely drained leaving seven further boats sitting on the bottom of the dry canal, The Canal and River Trust said.
The disaster was initially believed to have been caused by a sinkhole but the Trust, which is charged with maintaining the waterway, confirmed it was a canal breach.
Ben Wood, 75, was asleep on one of the boats that fell into the hole when he was suddenly awoken as his boat was being sucked towards the crater.
He said: ‘I was in the boat asleep and I thought I needed to go to the toilet so I got up and thought “we are leaning a bit”‘.
‘I opened the back door to see why we were tilting and realised it was not raining at all and it was the water running away under the boat.
‘I jumped on the back and stepped off and that bit was going down at that second. The back went eight feet in the air and I landed on my front.’
Ben Wood, 75, had to jump off his sinking narrowboat as it descended into the massive hole left by the canal breach
Mr Wood quickly woke up his neighbours to get them to safety before they too were sucked into the breach
Thinking quickly, Mr Wood decided he had to wake up his neighbours and alert them of the emergency and started banging on the sides of the boat next to his to wake up the occupants.
He said: ‘He [Mr Wood’s neighbour] got out really quickly and his boat went down as well. My boat went nose down and his went stern first.’
Because it was dark, Mr Wood could not see anything at the time but just remembered that all he could hear ‘was rushing water’.
The Canal and River Trust said rebuilding the breach bank would be ‘huge and likely lengthy task’.
Footage on YouTube shows the moment that Mr Wood’s boat is sucked into the hole on Paul Smith-Storey’s channel Narrowboat Life Unlocked.
‘The boat is lifting badly, we have gone outside. Phil has just got up, he said he walked forward and there is a breach.
‘Everything has fallen over on the boat, the level has gone down by at least two feet and the flow of water is incredible’.
Recently retired couple from the US Geoff and Pamela Poole were just three boats down from the breach near the Grindley Brook Locks.
They were woken up by neighbours knocking on their boat door at 4.20am.
Geoff and Pamela Poole were just three boats down from the breach near the Grindley Brook Locks.
‘The whole boat was listing and everything had fallen,’ Mrs Poole said as she recalled her boat sinking as the water from the canal ran out
Two boats were sucked into the hole while a third teetered on the edge and seven more were left sitting a the bottom of a dry canal
‘The whole boat was listing and everything had fallen,’ Mrs Poole told the BBC.
‘I had literally just watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas last night and I saw the Christmas tree on the floor with broken ornaments.’
They had only moved onto their boat two and a half months ago after they had done extensive work to refurbish it.
‘We literally retired, left two kids back in the States, flew over here, bought the boat back in May and then spent months getting it ready,’ said Mr Poole.
‘That’s the end of our plans for the winter.’
The couple will now have to spend Christmas in a hotel.
Mr Poole said: ‘[It’s] totally disruptive – four days in a hotel, and then we’ll see what we’re going to do.’
With no other option, the couple packed their essentials into bags and loaded them onto a trolley to leave their home stuck to the bottom of the canal.
The couple had to pack their essentials into bags and head off to a hotel where they will spend Chrismas
Mr and Mrs Poole had just bought their narrowboat in May and moved in two months ago after extensive refurbishments
‘You have these big dreams of our first Christmas on the boat,’ Mrs Poole said.
‘We have the cutest little tree, our bed is all covered in little lights, I’d made a home-made wreath,’ she added.
Resigned to the couple’s situation, Mrs Poole said: ‘We’ll have next year.’
The couple are now looking to the future and worried about how long it will take before they can get their canal life back.
‘When we started evacuating, we literally thought it could be six months to a year, because that’s what happened at the Bridgwater,’ Mrs Poole said.
The Canal and River Trust said rebuilding and then reopening the canal will be a ‘huge and likely lengthy task’.
Mick Thomas, 67, originally from Dawley, Shropshire, was also in one of the boats moored along the canal.
He said he too was woken up by banging on his boat telling him to get dressed and get to safety.
Mick Thomas, 67, said: ‘I didn’t even have time to put my teeth in. It was incredible no one was hurt – or worse’
He added: ‘I didn’t even have time to put my teeth in.
‘It was incredible no one was hurt – or worse.
‘Lucky isn’t the word.’
Campbell Robb, chief executive of the Canal and River Trust, said: ‘Our teams have been on site since the early hours [of Monday morning], securing and making the canal safe and assisting the boat owners impacted.
‘The most important thing is that all those affected are safe and, working with the local authority, there is accommodation in place for the people and pets unable to return to their boats this evening.’
The trust say the embankment was subject to regular inspection by engineers and specialists as part of their routine checks.
They added that although the canal network is very old, breaches of this scale are relatively rare.
In January, Bridgwater Canal near Manchester also burst its banks, trapping people in their homes and submerging cars in water and a major incident was declared.
The breach at Llangollen Canal had also been declared a major incident by emergency services but this status has now been removed as the situation has become more manageable.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Marc Millward said: ‘We are pleased to confirm the incident is no longer in the emergency phase and some of the residents have been able to return to their boats.
‘Although our crews are no longer on the scene, we will continue to support our partners and the members of the public affected in any way we can.
‘I am extremely proud of the fast actions of our crews who quickly led the residents to safety, declared the major incident and installed the water gate to prevent mass flooding.
‘This was an unprecedented and challenging incident with multiple agencies in attendance who have worked extremely well together to bring the emergency operations to a close.
‘That being said there is still work to do to support those affected and to recover, and we will be ready to provide any assistance we can.’
