Muskingum River: Be prepared to evacuate

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- The Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency wants some people living near the Muskingum River to be prepared to evacuate.

If you live near the Muskingum River, from the Village of Dresden to the City of Zanesville, Director Jeff Jadwin wants you to be prepared to evacuate to protect your safety. Jadwin said this does not mean you need to evacuate right now, but you need to be prepared to evacuate if the river continues to rise due to ice jams resulting in flooding.

“People need to be concerned. Last nights rain and this mornings rain is still continuing to run off and put additional water into the river. It’s still a dangerous situation. Don’t get out on the ice. We don’t want any rescues or recoveries from that,” said  Jadwin.

Jadwin said if you are unable to evacuate on your own to ask a neighbor to assist you or call the EMA. He said the biggest worry he has right now is the ice jam breaks off and causes damage rather than safely melting away.

“Any place where there’s a dock, that’s not out of the water, is going to be destroyed. I’m sure you’ve all see on your footage their boats, their docks, barrels everywhere, trees there’s a lot of debris and I just can’t imagine what the total devastation is going to be downstream if this lets loose,” said  Jadwin.

Jadwin said they want warmer temperatures to melt the ice jams as quickly as possible. Jadwin said this is the longest he has seen the ice jams stay in the Muskingum River in over 10 years.