Paul and his family were left teetering in their houseboat over a giant hole in the middle of the night, and ‘lost everything’. ‘The earth opened up beneath our home and attempted to take the lives of mine and three other families’.
Emergency services were called to the Chemistry area of Whitchurch, Shropshire after the ‘significant breach’ of the Shropshire Union Canal(Image: Anita Maric / SWNS)
An artist from Cornwall is among those whose lives have been “turned upside down” by a terrifying canal breach which left his houseboat teetering over the edge of a giant hole.
Paul Stowe, known for years for the Stowe Gallery in Lemon Street Market in Truro, was in his boat the Pacemaker when an embankment collapsed on the Llangollen Canal in Shropshire on Monday (December 22).
Two other boats were swallowed by the crater, with millions of gallons of water draining into nearby fields.
Paul, his wife and son managed to escape shortly after 4am when they heard a rush of water, but have been left with just the clothes on their backs while an assessment into the damage gets underway.
Sharing photos of the devastation on the Stowe Gallery Facebook page, Paul wrote: “24 hours ago at 4am our lives were turned upside down – the earth opened up beneath our home and attempted to take the lives of mine and three other families – by some miracle we all managed to escape – we did so with just the clothes on our back and in some cases not even the socks on our feet – I can’t thank the emergency services enough, especially the heros at #whitchurchfirestation who’s kindness and professionalism proved invaluable at an incredibly stressful and heartbreaking time.
“The guys over on narrowboat morning star have been so generous to us personally and deserve a special mention – they have also set up a GoFundMe page to help those of us who have lost everything.
“I’m writing this at 2:30am less than 24hrs after our world was torn apart, and if I had any advice for anyone reading this, it would be to remember to always tell the people most important to you how much they love them before going to bed – oh and to never moor your boat on a high embankment!!”
Emergency services declared a major incident at the canal on Monday, with 50 firefighters deployed.
Mark Durham, the Canal and River Trust’s principal engineer, said “embankment failure” was the best way to describe what had happened, with an assessment of the man-made slope expected to take weeks. From there, repairs will likely take months.
Of the works, Paul told the BBC: “I don’t mind if it takes a month, or three months, or six months, I want [the Canal River Trust] to help secure my home. Everything we own, everything we’ve got, is on that boat.”
The artist said he couldn’t believe everyone had got off the boats “with their lives intact” and said they had all been supported “very well” by the local council and a canal boat company.
But he added: “I’m not sure I’ll ever moor in this area again, I’m not sure I’ll ever moor on an embankment again. I’ll be honest with you, it’s very debatable I’ll ever want to go on a boat again.”
A GoFundMe page, which you can donate to here, has already raised over £30,000 for the narrowboat residents.
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