Three boats were last week engulfed by the giant sinkhole on the Llangollen Canal near Whitchurch, and at least 10 people needed to be helped off their narrowboats
New aerial pictures show narrowboats still stranded in a collapsed canal one week after its 200-year-old embankment caved in.
Emergency workers could be seen positioning boat turners yesterday morning in a bid to winch the stranded boats to safety. Workers began securing the ruined banks today just a week after they breached on December 22 along the Llangollen Canal.
Emergency services were called to the Chemistry area of Whitchurch, Shropshire, following the “significant breach” of the canal last week. Three boats were engulfed by the giant sinkhole which measured 50m (164ft) by 50m (164ft).
At least 10 people had to be rescued after the banks breached shortly after 4.40am. New pictures released yesterday show pumps in place to keep water levels normal and to prevent further catastrophic flooding.
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Workers were also seen positioning a boat turner while preparing to rescue the three stranded boats. Canal and River Trust chief executive Campbell Robb said: “Now the initial emergency response, including the concern for boaters’ immediate safety, has passed, our teams have been working hard to refill the Llangollen Canal around the site of the breach.
“This will mean the boats in the immediate area are refloating, and navigation along other affected areas will be restored. We are also delighted to have been able to recover narrowboat Pacemaker from the edge of the breach overnight.
“Alongside this, our engineers are continuing their investigations into why the canal embankment was undermined and will be drawing up plans for its repair.
“We’ll be providing regular updates and assurance to the local and boating community in the weeks ahead. Thankfully, breaches of this scale are relatively rare, but, when they do occur, they’re expensive and complicated to fix.
“I’m thankful that, working with Shropshire Council, initial support has been there for all the people and pets who got caught up in this disaster. With most of the boats now refloating, we’ll continue to support those affected.”
Phil Johnson, 56, said he woke up to the sounds of “cracking and banging” and quickly got dressed before leaving his boat to see what was happening. He said: “I saw the water flying past the boat at horrendous speed, I could hear like a waterfall around the corner from my boat. I went and had a look and was greeted by the most horrendous sight of seeing this boat stuck in the breach at the bottom, being basically flooded.”
Mr Johnson added that he saw a second boat “teetering on the edge” before it slowly fell in. He continued: “It’s awful to say but it reminded me of that horrible scene from the Titanic film, because that’s what it was like, when the back goes down and the bow comes up, and it finally just slid into the hole. It was horrible.”
He decided to go back to his boat to grab some clothes, but admitted he was “frightened to death” as it felt like it was going to tip onto its side. Mr Johnson added: “It was probably one of the scariest things of my life, I thought I was going to lose the lot.”
