Authorities in Shropshire, England, declared a "major incident" early Monday after an embankment collapsed before dawn, draining part of the Llangolen Canal and stranding boaters. The breach near Whitchurch caused the channel to drain around 4am, leaving three narrowboats marooned in a crater about 160 feet wide. Twelve people who lived on nearby moored boats were evacuated, the Telegraph reports. Authorities initially said a sinkhole had opened up, but the Canal and River Trust later said a canal wall had given way. Video shows a boat falling into the crater.
A major incident was declared at 5:17am as "large volumes of water" poured into surrounding land, according to officials. By 8:30am, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said the situation had stabilized, water flow had slowed, and no search-and-rescue work was ongoing. "No persons are believed to be on board the affected canal boats, and no injuries have been reported," area manager Scott Hurford said. He tells the Shropshire Star it's extremely fortunate that nobody was injured. Boat residents "recognized the water level was dropping and started to do their own evacuation and raised the emergency services," Hurford says.
Bob Wood, 75, says he woke up just in time for a very narrow escape. After hearing water and noticing the boat leaning, "I opened the back door to see why we were tilting and realized it was not raining at all, and it was the water running away under the boat," he says, per the Guardian. "I jumped on the back and stepped off, and that bit was going down at that second. The back went eight foot in the air and I landed on my front." Wood, who has lived on the boat for eight years, says he hammered on a neighboring boat to alert a resident, who also got out just in time. "He got out really quickly, and his boat went down as well," Wood says. "My boat went nose down and his went stern first."
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