Just reported on WTVN Columbus: 16 Ohio River AEP barges have broken loose and jammed a bridge near Wheeling, WVa. Detours are required and take traffic 30 miles out of their way.
The Muskingum River is expected to crest at 14 to 15 feet sometime tonight, three to 4 feet above flood stage.
The river stood at 12.3 feet early this morning and the trend was rising.
The river last flooded in early September 2002, reaching 11.69 feet, causing only minor damage. However, last January the river climbed to 12.7 feet causing damage or destroying 88 homes and businesses. "
We won't know how bad it's going to be until it happens," said Keith Spare, pubic information officer for the Morgan County Emergency Operations Center. "We're just hoping it doesn't reach as high as they're calling for."
Tom Bragg, of Bragg's Furniture Store, 495 W. Riverside Drive, McConnelsville, was starting to move his inventory to the second floor of the business by 10 a.m. Wednesday.
By 5 p.m. later that day water from the Muskingum River was lapping at his front door.
"We were out of business for two months when this hit us last year," Bragg said. "All we can really do now is watch, wait and monitor the situation."
Last January's flood put about a foot of water on the floor of the business.
By late Wednesday afternoon Bragg said he had moved everything but some large appliances out of the business.
"We'll get those at the last minute," Bragg said.
There are many barges that are in marginal shape. When loose, they can "prang" each other and in rushes the water (and/or out, rushes the contents).
Very long lines to shore, are now required, for this kind of flooding. As previously mentioned, that can mean closing roads to traffic, so that the lines can be placed across the road, and secured to higher ground.
It is time to reach out and touch a lot of good anchors.
I've been down there, years ago, when in the military, and the work load is unimaginable. I used to wonder that the news media fail us, in not reporting what life is like on the river.
Many men, who were born into the jobs, have forearms (yeah, forearms) that are as big in diameter as their legs. I was always amazed by the guys who looked like Popeye the Sailor Man, from decades of hauling lines and tote that barge.
Tough people. Many are descendants of the old French-Canadian explorers and early Continental pioneers.