Ice has broken on the Muskingum River

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The ice covering the Muskingum River has broken and next the Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency will start surveying the damage.

Executive Director Jeff Jadwin started receiving calls January 24, 2017 at approximately 4:45 P.M. that the ice had broken and was traveling down stream. Along with the Muskingum County E.M.A. office the Ohio Department of Transportation, Zanesville Police Department, and Zanesville Fire Department all were on site monitoring the river.

The ice did momentarily build up at Kirkbride Marina, but the force of the water pushed the ice through. Jadwin explained the ice traveling through the bridges and dams broke into smaller pieces, which helped it glide down stream easily.

“We didn’t get any additional flooding,” Jadwin said. “I went out this morning, the river is well back within its banks, you can see the dam at Ellis Dam. Now there are large chunks of ice still along the river, you know along the sides or still floating, but that’s not a big concern at this point.”

Photo By: Karysa Kent

Fortunately the ice traveled down stream well and didn’t jam up. However, Jadwin announced the next step is to survey what damage has been done to private and public properties.

“There’s a lot of damage, homes have been damaged, cabins, campers, and trailers,” Jadwin said. “That’s all got to be dealt with by the land owner. The [State of Ohio] didn’t make any declarations or the federal government, so there won’t be any grant funding coming through for this.”

Muskingum County E.M.A. is requesting that property owners along the river report the damage they have by calling (740) 453-1655.

Along with the damage being surveyed, health and safety are also priorities following the breakage.

“There is a lot of debris in the river, there is a lot of debris in the area where water was up,” Jadwin said. “It’s got to be dealt with in the coming months. The Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department is going to be meeting with me to get information out on how people can check and protect their water if they have wells.”

The E.M.A. office wanted to thank all the partnering agencies and residents who lived by the river. Jadwin says the office received many helpful phone calls and updates from the community.