A group of residents have been told the risk to their homes has been reduced after firefighters managed to pump water away from their properties in Halberton. It follows the collapse of part of the Great Western Canal.
Jon Miller from Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue explains what they plan to do next:
Fire crews in Devon are working flat out to pump-off water after part of the Grand Western Canal collapsed.
Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water poured into fields when the embankment collapsed on Wednesday. Emergency dams are keeping water levels high further up the canal.
Bob Cruwys reports:
Little if any of the water which flooded out of the Grand Western Canal into surrounding fields when an embankment collapsed seems to have drained away this morning.
Several gulls have taken up residence, perhaps finding easy pickings in this new lake with all the fish which were washed out of the canal in the flood.
Work to shore up emergency dams is continuing today to try to stop any more water leaking out of this canal. It will be some time before any attempt to rebuild the embankment and repair this stretch of canal.
It is likely to take years but officials hope to have it reopened in time for the 200th anniversary of the canal in 2014.
A huge hole has opened up in the side of the historic Grand Western Canal at Halberton not far from Tiverton. Thousands and thousands of gallons of water flooded down the embankment into the fields below. The force of the water was so great it carved a gorge into the hillside.
– Neil Babbage, EyewitnessIt was subsiding right there and it was very difficult to hold the camera still. I was shaking but this was so spectacular that I just had to get it onto camera. It was breathtaking because we didn't know what was going to happen next, how much of the bank was going to be washed away. Everthing just gushed, crumbling away in front of us and it was quite scary.
This dramatic footage was filmed by one of our viewers, farm contractor Neil Babbage.
This dramatic footage was filmed by one of our viewers, farm contractor Neil Babbage.