Those traveling through parts of Athens, Hocking, Perry and Vinton counties might need to find alternate routes because of emergency flooding in areas.
Heavy rains Tuesday night left the areas severely flooded, forcing Athens County Commissioners to declare a state of emergency yesterday, commissioner Mark Sullivan said.
We met with our (Emergency Management Agency) director in the morning and we have all available emergency personnel that the county has access to out there
Sullivan said.
Numerous roads are closed in the area, both trapping people and forcing them to be evacuated, with more rain predicted, said Michael Canterbury, Athens County deputy engineer.
It's kind of one of those instances where they had so much water that came down and was confined into one area -the creek could not take the downpours it had. It's really kind of treacherous out there Canterbury said.
During floods, residents frequently have the misconception that open dams are to blame, said Ray Hurley, the maintenance mechanic in charge of the Tom Jenkins dam. Some residents complained that the Glouster dam caused the flood, claiming it was opened at 6 p.m. Tuesday before the rains came. The dam has not been opened -the flooding was caused by area creeks that could not contain the excess water, Hurley said.
Individuals are being evacuated from emergency areas by boat and no injuries have been reported, said Jill Harris, emergency management agency director.
We are encouraging people in low lying areas to evacuate to make sure they are aware with their surroundings because of the potential for flash floods and high waters coming in real quick
Canterbury said.
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