Two Wood County communities are steeling themselves for the worst as melting snow and expected rainfall
threaten to create flooding along area waterways.
“Obviously at this point, concern is going to be Thursday and Friday,” said Wood County Emergency
Management Director Brad Gilbert. He noted that between 1 and 1.5 inches of rain is expected for the
area.
“We’re going to see what the ice on the rivers do,” he said. “And actually, with that amount of rain,
we’re going to see water issues all over the place, even away from the rivers.”
Thick layers of ice are present on both the Portage and Maumee rivers, he said.
“Our big concern is always Grand Rapids and Pemberville. We’ve met several times with both villages, and
they’re making preparations as far as making sand bags available” and “just kind of tuning into any
other preparations they need to do in the event of major flooding.”
Pemberville Mayor Gordon Bowman spent much of Wednesday seeing that residents who wanted sand bags could
get them. The village is also providing fill for the bags and is compiling a list of volunteers who will
help out with any private sand bag efforts to protect property.
High water has been a continuous concern throughout this unusually snowy winter season. An ice jam on the
Portage River already caused minor flooding in Pemberville in mid-January, and a similar jam on the
Maumee created issues for properties in Henry County days later.
Gilbert said that right now the Portage is fairly low and “running pretty steady. But there’s probably a
good eight inches of ice over top. So again, once we get some rain in and get some of that water
underneath, (it) will start breaking that up,” running the risk of potential ice jams and raising water
levels Friday and over the weekend.
Similarly at Grand Rapids, the Maumee is “fairly low at this point,” with more than 14 inches of ice
sitting on top.
“So there’s quite a bit of ice on that river,” Gilbert said.
He said there is a large stretch of open water in front of the village east of the dam, but the ice jam
“is still sitting on the other side of the dam back towards and into Henry County.”
Early indications are that the Maumee jam may again cause flooding problems in Henry County.
As far as Wood County is concerned, they “don’t see any immediate issues until it starts moving and
getting over the dam and into Grand Rapids,” Gilbert said.
The Grand Rapids Fire Department has already delivered informational sheets to property and business
owners likely to be affected by flooding, and Pemberville was set to do so Wednesday or today, possibly
with the help of volunteers from Eastwood High School.
“But again, Pemberville just flooded a little over a month ago. It’s still fresh on their mind,” Gilbert
said.
He characterized the current state of flood preparedness as “pretty good. The state’s been putting out
information, we’ve been putting out information for the last couple weeks. With the record snowfall, I
think people are tuned into (that) there’s a lot of potential water sitting out there. So hopefully
people are starting to think to move snow away” from catch basins and other such drainage areas around
their homes to “make sure they’re open and clear.”
“I think there’s been plenty of information pushed out,” said Gilbert. “Hopefully people are heeding
that.”