The Tombigbee River is receding.
Rick Saucer, operations manager with the Tenn-Tom Waterway, said that on Tuesday morning the river’s headwater elevation was at 165.68 feet. It peaked, he said, at 166.03 feet about 2 a.m. Tuesday.
Two barges that have been stuck at the John C. Stennis Lock & Dam in Columbus since Saturday morning likely played a part in the high elevations.
“It was definitely flooding conditions even prior to the barges being there,” Saucer said. “It’s kind of hard to tell what it would have done without the barges there — I’m sure it wouldn’t have been as bad.”
The barges — one loaded with soybeans, one with salt, both owned by Tom Soya Grain Company — broke free from the Raymond D. Lucas Memorial Port in Clay County on Saturday because of rising waters due to last week’s rain. They came to rest against the Lock & Dam by 8 a.m. Saturday. On Monday morning, the one loaded with soybeans sank. A third barge that broke free, Saucer said, became stuck up river from the Lock & Dam.
The two against the Lock & Dam partly hindered water from flowing through, according to Saucer.
The dam gate will need repairs, but operators hope to wait until after the high water season ends in April or May to begin work, according to Saucer.
“If everything is working right, we’d try to get in this summer and do it,” he said. “If it’s an emergency situation, we’ll try to do it as soon as we can.”
Saucer said the barges won’t be removed until the water falls further. How long that takes depends on how quickly it drains away and the weather. He said the Tom Soya Grain Company will have to decide how to remove the barges.
Perry Lucas, the director of Raymond D. Lucas Memorial Port, did not return messages from The Dispatch on Tuesday.
“It’s probably going to be a slow fall here for a day or so,” Saucer said of the waterway’s elevation. “Then, as the water starts getting out of here it will fall a little faster. Of course that also depends on rainfall — it’s hard to say.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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