Ice jams on Allegheny River cause flooding in Venango County: "Too close for comfort"
Ice jams on the Allegheny River are causing flooding in parts of Butler, Clarion and Venango counties.
Up north, the Allegheny River is at a standstill. The longer it doesn't move, the more issues the backed-up water can cause. After ice broke from Oil City, it created a mess downriver in Emlenton.
Brady Louise has a property right on the river.
"It's usually out there quite a ways, but now it's a little too close for comfort," Louise said.
He says between 2:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. Friday, the river came out of its banks and right up to the base of his home. It normally sits about 7 to 8 feet at its deepest point.
"It has definitely tripled," Louise said. "I was hopeful it would be more like a slush or a slurry and move on out. There was just so much that it jammed."
Downriver closer to Foxburg, campers were underwater as some ice started to move before jamming up again. Matthew Drewher has six rentals along this stretch. He's hoping the water doesn't come up much further.
"We woke up this morning to some work and a little bit of anxiety," Drewher said.
While there were some gaps in the jam closer to Foxburg, the ice didn't move too much during the day. It's not uncommon for the river to ice over in the area, but for a jam like this to form, it's been nearly half a century, according to people living here.
"In '77, the water came up, and you had big hunks of ice that came onto the street, like pickup truck-size pieces of ice were out on the street," Louise said.
At this point, it's in Mother Nature's hands when the jam breaks.
"If it gets much worse than this, of course, we have much bigger problems and we'll deal with them in stride," Drewher said.
Some parts of River Avenue have been closed in Emlenton as water came up. The fire department is asking people to avoid coming down and looking at the jam as it makes it challenging for people to get out if there comes a point where they have to evacuate.
Will ice jams make it downriver to Pittsburgh?
While all eyes right now are on the upper part of the Allegheny, it's only a matter of time before everything floats downstream. Officials acknowledge that some of the larger chunks of ice could make their way all the way down to the point.
Given the amount of ice hung up, the National Weather Service's Alicia Miller said boat owners on the river need to be ready to move when the ice chunks start to head south.
"If you have any interests, anything along the river that you'd be concerned about, I would pull it back," Miller said.
Beyond that, the threat of flooding behind the ice masses is of equal concern. The plates of ice are gigantic and act as temporary dams and you can't just break them up.
"They are very large and they will start to break up as they go over some of the dams, but even so, they're very large and very heavy, you're not going to be able to move them yourself without large equipment," Miller said.
If you're living near the river or on it, given how fast these floods can occur, officials say to pay attention to any flood warnings and be prepared to move out quickly.