Determined volunteers battling to save their club from the flood waters watched helplessly as a boat sank on the River Dee.
Business owners, pub landlords and home owners watched anxiously as water cascaded towards their doorsteps as the River Dee burst its banks during high tide today.
Customers were stranded in the Blue Moon Cafe and the staff at Boat House were left facing a massive clean-up as water flooded The Groves and Meadows rushing past sandbags into the pub.
And rowers from Chester Rowing Club, who raced to their boat house to protect their much-loved club, watched in disbelief as a boat gradually capsized as the flood waters rose.
“It was short of an anchor chain, it tipped and tipped and then it was almost gone, said Martin Bailiff, facilities manager for the Rowing Club, who came down to secure the club.
“I came down straight after work after the captain gave me a call. It came up as high as the door, the jetty seems to have survived pretty well but it is meant to be even higher tonight.”
The team of rowers raced out of work to help protect their
And deputy manager at the Blue Moon Cafe, Simon Tayman, said the boat had to be cut free to stop it completely sinking as the water rushed by.
“It was going, going, and then it was gone. We were all watching, there was nothing we could do,” said Mr Tayman, who said the flooding was the worst he had seen in two years.
“The water came up to the last step, we had four sandbags, we were judging how high the water got by how much we could read on our sign.”
Simon watched as workers cut the mooring line off the boat in an attempt to stop it totally capsizing, which caused many of the other boats to float out towards the middle of the river.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was surprised that during the worst of it the bin men still came. They sprayed water everywhere.”
It is unclear who owns the boat, which has been left submerged in the River Dee.
A gallery of photographs from the flooding on Thursday, December 5.
