83 rescued after floating restaurant breaks loose
COVINGTON, KY
Covington Fire Department Capt. Chris Kiely said Jeff Ruby's
Waterfront restaurant drifted about 85 to 100 yards down the fast,
rain-swollen river during the late Friday evening dinner hour and
the popular seafood eatery then came to a stop beside a tall bridge
as skittish dinner patrons looked on.
He said 83 people were safely rescued by early Saturday after an
effort lasting hours, led off one by one.
"Luckily the people on the boat called" emergency services
swiftly on their cell phones, Kiely told The Associated Press early
Saturday.
TV footage showed dinner patrons pacing aboard the barge as
firefighters boarded up the makeshift bridge of ladders that
spanned swirling, murky, debris-filled water. Tugboats edged close
as people gathered to watch from land.
Kiely said the regular gangplanks tore away, cutting off those
aboard from shore.
"There were three gangplanks on the restaurant already and when
it broke loose it destroyed sections ... the last 20 feet of the
gangplanks were destroyed as the boat moved downriver," he said by
telephone.
Kiely said the river had recently gone above flood stage after
severe winter storms and was expected to crest in coming days.
The National Weather Service said a flood warning was in effect
for the Ohio River at Cincinnati next to Covington with the river
at 4 a.m. local time at 55.3 feet -- or 3.3 feet above flood stage.
Emergency crews strapped life jackets on those whose dinner of
shrimp and seafood was abruptly interrupted. Reports said woman
were taken to shore first, across the improvised ladder bridge
strung with ropes, some removing shoes for better traction.
The restaurant is one of several dotting the Ohio River
waterfront, docked on the Kentucky side of the river opposite
Cincinnati. Kiely said the restaurant barge came to rest near the
Clay Wade Bailey Bridge after a rear mooring line pulled taut, and
the line held it firmly.
"As the barge started to float downriver, the rear line came
around the front of the pier and it put tension on it and held
it," Kiely said. "The worst thing that could have happened is the
barge could have swung out in the current, but luckily the line
held."
Kiely, who was at the site, said he saw Collinsworth -- the
former Bengals star wide receiver and NBC pro football commentator
-- among those rescued.
Calls by The Associated Press to phone numbers listed for the
restaurant and Jeff Ruby were not immediatley returned early
Saturday.