Lakewood Fire, Police, Rangers Spend A Sleepless Night Worrying

[Jim O'Bryan]

Last night was one of those night, Lakewood Fire Department, Lakewood Police, and Metro Park Rangers spent a lot of time just stopping and looking. At what, Rocky River, the warm temperatures after the 20+ days of freezing temps brought a thaw to Rocky River, and with it the dangers associated with river ice dams, flooding and damage associated with it. Some of the most valuable property in Lakewood is along the river on both banks, hundreds of boats, and the public roads through the Emerald Canyon that quickly flood.

Around 5pm the the river started to melt and break up, and with it came the inevitable ice dam, and millions of tons of ice and water started to break up, but run into the big bend just north of the first bridge in Metro Parks heading south from Detroit Avenue. By 8:30 the ice dam as predicted accurately by Lakewood Fire Chief Scott Gilman had moved down to Eddie's Boat docks, aka, just south of Sweet Water Landings, across the way from 11 River in Rocky River. By this morning the ice dam had moved down to the railroad bridge. Which is not a good sign. With temperatures getting ready to fall below freezing and an ice storm and 4+ inches of snow on the way, it will allow the entire process to start over again. This is the scenario that brings massive flooding to the lagoons, the west bank of the river, and Metro Parks in general.

Here are some of the photos from last night and this morning.


Here comes the build up. To the right of the build up you can see the relatively smooth ice.


Behind it up river you can see the chunks of ice and water moving downstream.


Ice dam moving down by Sweetwater Landing, and the river flowing up river where it was rising quickly.


Rocky River Fire Department checking on the ice build up.


Next up Lakewood Fire Department, comes back down to check the river.


20 minutes later, Metro Park Rangers check out the build up.


Meanwhile down by the Clifton Lagoons, everything appears calm. But all that water is going somewhere, and from Sweetwater Landing, you can see tons of ice being moved under the ice pack.


Back at Sweetwater Landing the ice is breaking up but not moving. On the far side of the river you can see what looks like a white lava flow, which is tons of ice breaking up the river but also building the ice dam.


Soon the build up had moved down river.




Those slabs of ice are 12" thick!




Thanks open water closest to the camera, with ice flowing by and disappearing.


Then Channel 5 sent down a cameraman to capture the action.


Meanwhile upstream you can see how fast the water was rising and moving.

By this morning the ice damn had moved down to the railroad bridge where it has stopped, Sweetwater Landing is closed, and I am sure the rest of Metro Park roads will follow.


In the morning fog.

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[Mark Kindt]

Marvelous and dramatic photographs! Fascinating. Thank you, Mr. O'Bryan.

[Peter Grossetti]

Dam(n)!

[Jim O'Bryan]

UPDATED AS OF 10:30am (Special thanks to Andrew Brickman, Bob at 11 River, and the Rocky River Police and Fire for this update.)










On the west side of the river there is a channel allowing water to flow out. So that while the ice is backing up, the water level is not rising as of now.




You can see the open water on the far side.

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[james fitzgibbons]

Hopefully no one is crazy enough to have a boat docked in Rocky River mid January. Weather events like this are not uncommon.

As for the homes. It has never seemed fair to me that residents of Lakewood can not access the mouth of the river. I hope no damage occurs.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Hopefully no one is crazy enough to have a boat docked in Rocky River mid January. Weather events like this are not uncommon.

As for the homes. It has never seemed fair to me that residents of Lakewood can not access the mouth of the river. I hope no damage occurs.

James

No boats in the water, but more than a hundred still in reach of flooded water and or ice flows of the past.

I agree with the mouth of the river, the beach and the fact that Lakewoodites cannot access the lake without spending $$$$$$. At Lakewood Park the Solstice Steps actually took the public 16' farther back from the lake than before.

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[Jim O'Bryan]

With the wind coming from another dirction the ice at the mouth of the river went out into the lake, and the ice dam was far up river.


You can see the build up of the ice dam, smooth ice, then open water.


Sea Gulls sitting at the edge of the ice.



Meanwhile the lake was kicking up huge waves.









By sunset the ice dam had broken up and the river was flowing, just as the winter storm cam in!


City crews working to keep up with the snowfall.

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[james fitzgibbons]

To think I was complaining about humidity last summer. I will remember to keep my mouth shut.