A 75-year-old man was forced to leap from his narrowboat as it was dragged into a massive hole following a dramatic canal breach in Shropshire in the early hours of Monday morning.
Dawn Disaster on the Llangollen Canal
The banks of the Llangollen Canal collapsed at around 4am, sending water flooding out and pulling a huge section of the canal bed with it. The Canal and River Trust confirmed the incident was a breach, not a sinkhole as first thought. The collapse created a crater 160 feet wide, which swallowed two narrowboats whole, with a third left teetering precariously on the edge.
In total, 15 residents had to be evacuated from their boats as a large stretch of the canal completely drained, leaving seven further vessels stranded on the muddy bottom. The Trust stated that rebuilding the breach will be a "huge and likely lengthy task."
Eyewitnesses Describe Terrifying Ordeal
Ben Wood, 75, was asleep on one of the boats that fell into the hole. "I was in the boat asleep and I thought I needed to go to the toilet," he recalled. "I got up and thought 'we are leaning a bit'. I opened the back door... and realised it was not raining at all and it was the water running away under the boat." Acting swiftly, Mr Wood jumped from the stern just as his boat began to descend. "The back went eight feet in the air and I landed on my front," he said.
Thinking of his neighbours, Mr Wood immediately began banging on the side of the next boat to raise the alarm. "He got out really quickly and his boat went down as well," he said. "My boat went nose down and his went stern first." In the darkness, all he could hear was the sound of "rushing water."
The dramatic moment Mr Wood's boat was consumed was captured on video and shared on the YouTube channel Narrowboat Life Unlocked.
Christmas Plans Sunk for Retired Couple
Recently retired American couple Geoff and Pamela Poole were moored just three boats down from the breach near Grindley Brook Locks. They were woken at 4.20am by neighbours pounding on their door. "The whole boat was listing and everything had fallen," Mrs Poole told the BBC. "I had literally just watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas... and I saw the Christmas tree on the floor with broken ornaments."
The couple had only moved onto their meticulously refurbished narrowboat two and a half months prior, after flying from the US. "That's the end of our plans for the winter," said Mr Poole. Their dream of a first Christmas on the canal, complete with a homemade wreath and fairy lights, is now ruined. They packed essentials into bags, loaded a trolley, and face spending Christmas in a hotel, worried repairs could take six months to a year.
Another boater, Mick Thomas, 67, from Dawley, Shropshire, was also roused by the emergency. "I didn't even have time to put my teeth in," he said. "It was incredible no one was hurt - or worse. Lucky isn't the word."
Recovery Operation and Canal Safety
Campbell Robb, chief executive of the Canal and River Trust, said teams were on site from the early hours securing the area and assisting boaters. Accommodation has been found for all displaced residents and their pets. The Trust stated that while the canal network is historic, breaches of this scale are relatively rare. The embankment was subject to regular inspections, they confirmed.
The incident was initially declared a major incident by emergency services, but that status has now been lifted. Assistant Chief Fire Officer Marc Millward praised the multi-agency response and the fast actions of crews who led residents to safety and installed a water gate to prevent wider flooding.
This breach follows another on the Bridgwater Canal near Manchester in January, which also led to a major incident declaration. The focus at the Llangollen Canal now turns to the complex and long-term task of reconstruction.
