Boaters stranded for Christmas after canal collapse
17 minutes agoChloe Hughes,West MidlandsandAlex James and Ellen Knight,in Whitchurch
Dozens of people have been left stranded for Christmas after a giant hole emerged in a section of the Llangollen Canal in Shropshire on Monday.
Initially thought to be caused by a sinkhole, engineers later said the embankment in Whitchurch had collapsed, causing water to flood out. Two boats were left at the bottom of a deep trench and others lay on dry canal bed.
Many other liveaboards – people who live on narrowboats full-time – now cannot pass through the area, leaving them stuck either on the Llangollen side of the collapse, or the side joining the Shropshire Union Canal.
They includes Geoff and Pamela Poole, who were just three boats away from the breach and were alerted by neighbours.
“The whole boat was listing and everything had fallen,” said Mrs Poole, who was awoken by people banging on her vessel’s door at about 04:20 GMT.
“I had literally just watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas last night and I saw the Christmas tree on the floor with broken ornaments.”
The couple, from the USA, had been on their boat for just two-and-a-half months.
“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.”
He said the pair, who were moored near the Grindley Brook Locks, would now have to spend Christmas in a hotel.
Although they can visit family nearby on Christmas Day, they do not have a spare bed.
“[It’s] totally disruptive – four days in a hotel, and then we’ll see what we’re going to do,” Mr Poole said.
On Monday evening, the couple packed their essential belongings into bags and loaded them into a trolley, ready to leave their home behind for the time being.
“We have the cutest little tree, our bed is all covered in little lights, I’d made a home-made wreath,” said Mrs Poole.
She said their biggest concern was not knowing when they would be able to get back on the boat and move on.
“When we started evacuating, we literally thought it could be six months to a year, because that’s what happened at the Bridgewater,” Mrs Poole said.
She added that they had just been Christmas shopping for special food to celebrate the occasion together.
“You have these big dreams of our first Christmas on the boat,” she said.
“We’ll have next year.”
Phil Johnson, originally from East Yorkshire, moved on to his boat in May.
He was planning on travelling back home on Tuesday, before returning to Whitchurch on Boxing Day.
“I certainly won’t be having Christmas in East Yorkshire,” he said.
“Because of the way the boat is at the minute, I don’t want to leave it.
“Basically all my personal belongings are on that boat – everything that I own is on that boat.”
He said some friends, who lived in Oxford, had driven up to Whitchurch to give him keys to a flat they owned there, so he had somewhere to stay.
He will spend Christmas Day with some friends in the town.
“The boating community, any disaster like this, everybody’s helping each other,” he said.
For those needing emergency accommodation, Norbury Wharf has offered its boats free of charge.
Phil JohnsonLike the Pooles, Mr Johnson said he had woken up in the early hours of Monday to cracking, banging and shouting.
He saw water flowing out of the breach in the embankment, adding it “sounded like Niagara falls”.
“I went past the bow of my boat and that’s where I saw that first boat in all the pictures and the bow was being flooded,” he said.
“Then the first boat was flat at the bottom, and there was another one teetering on the edge.
“The back of the boat went down and instantly it looked like that scene of the Titanic film.”
Cause unknown
No injuries were reported and Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said it had supported about 15 people and taken them to safety.
The Canal and River Trust has said it did not know how long the repair would take, and that its priority was to ensure boaters were supported, and that the area was made safe.
“Our 200-year-old canals and structures are regularly inspected and monitored as part of routine operations,” it has stated.
On Tuesday, trust chief executive Campbell Robb said the organisation would “learn lots of lessons from what happened” and “make sure [that if] there’s anything that we could be doing differently”, it would be addressed.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live the trust had “people out all across the network all the time, checking canals, checking embankments”.
He said: “We’ve also got a whole community of boaters and people who live around and on canals. They get in touch with us regularly… If they get any concerns, they should get in touch with us.
“We’ll… make sure that we try and get out and check it.”
Mr Robb said the “next job” was “to get this canal fixed, which is what we’re going to be doing over the next few months”.
“We need to get in there and work out how we make it safe, how we maybe get some of those boats out, how we make the rest of the canal that’s not in the breach safe as well, so that’s what we’re doing today.”
PA MediaAnother liveaboard, Chris, who is moored at the Grindley Brook Marina, said when she woke up at 05:00 GMT on Monday, she fell into the wall of the boat because it was listing over.
Looking ahead to Christmas, she said: “I haven’t done any [Christmas] food shopping because I can’t think about it at the minute, I just want to get the boat right.
“I know that sounds really dramatic, but it’s not.
“Where do you go? This is home.”
What little water is left in the marina is shallow, not enough to float a boat.
Chris said it had been an emotional day. For many, she said life on a boat was all about being on the move and yet everyone had suddenly found themselves stuck.
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