IT WAS JUST THREE DAYS before Christmas when the Whitchurch breach occurred leaving boaters homeless and their boats in dangerous positions.
But Linda Edwards (pictured) from Cheshire Cat Narrowboats came to the rescue, Janet Friend reports.
Offering her narrowboats
She offering her narrowboats to house those left with little but what they were standing up in.
So Linda made sure of their welcome telling the BBC:
"We had a call probably about four o'clock on the day that the breach happened, asking if we could house people—so we had to drop everything and go and get boats ready to receive them.
"We put bedding in, make sure the heating was on, make sure everything was ready to welcome them and we had the boats ready for half past six."
Two couples
The company's fleet is based at the Overwater Marina in Audlem on the Shropshire Union Canal, and they now have two families on their boats that were dragged into the hole to stay on vessels from her fleet, with Linda telling:
"The two couples that we've got on board, it's their home, and they did have to leave in a hurry—they've just left with what they stood up in and are a bit traumatised but coming to terms with it, and beginning to look forward.
"The boats are available until Easter basically, because it is our closed season, and hopefully by then something will have been sorted for them."
The company's boats have central heating, flush toilets, and hot and cold running water, as well as hobs, grills, ovens and fridges.