83 rescued after floating restaurant breaks loose

[March 12, 2011]  COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- Firefighters rigged a precarious gangplank of ladders and ropes and safely rescued 83 people, including former Cincinnati Bengals star Cris Collinsworth, from a floating restaurant that broke free from a pier on the flood Ohio River, authorities say.

Covington Fire Department Capt. Chris Kiely said Jeff Ruby's Waterfront restaurant drifted about 85 to 100 yards down the rain-swollen river during the Friday evening dinner bustle and the popular seafood eatery lodged beside a tall bridge as stunned dinner patrons looked on.

He said 83 people were safely rescued by early Saturday after an effort lasting hours, led off one by one in life jackets.

"Luckily the people on the boat called" for help immediately on their cell phones, Kiely told The Associated Press.

TV footage of the rescue showed dinner patrons pacing aboard the barge as firefighters put up the makeshift bridge of ladders that spanned swirling, debris-filled water. Work boats edged close amid the flashing lights of firetrucks nearby.

Kiely said the regular gangplanks tore away or were damaged enough to leave all those aboard cut off.

"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.

Emergency crews strapped the 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, some removing their shoes first.

Kiely, after returning from the rescue, said he saw Collinsworth -- the former Bengals star wide receiver and NBC pro football commentator -- among those rescued.

Later Saturday, efforts were continuing to keep the restaurant secured.

Rob Carlisle, one of the owners of C&B Marine of Covington, directed efforts by one of his company's towboats to secure the front end of the restaurant.

He told AP the restaurant had become wedged against the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, one of several linking Cincinnati with northern Kentucky.

"If the bridge wasn't there it could have traveled down the river quite a ways," he told an AP reporter. Light traffic moved across the three-lane bridge, and trains on an adjacent track.

Carlisle said authorities were discussing the possibility of a crane on a barge being brought in to help put the restaurant back in place as river levels permit in coming days.

Authorities had no immediate report on how events unfolded or their plans.

Of the three restaurant walkways linking it to the pier, one was so badly damaged that it had crumpled nearly halfway into the water, still connected but unusable. Tree limbs and other debris filled the water and garbage piled against one end of the restaurant.

The river had recently risen above flood stage after severe winter storms.

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.

In recent days, two other waterfront restaurants in Newport, Ky., closed because of high waters from heavy rains. The Ohio River is expected to crest 4 to 5 feet above flood stage within days. Low-lying areas just east of Cincinnati on the Ohio side have experienced some moderate flooding.

The restaurant is one of several dotting the waterfront, on the Kentucky side just opposite Cincinnati.

Calls by The Associated Press to phone numbers listed for the restaurant and Jeff Ruby, a major restaurateur, were not immediately returned early Saturday. He owns or operates several restaurants in Cincinnati and surrounding areas.

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Information from: Evansville Courier & Press, http://www.courierpress.com/

[Associated Press; By DAN SEWELL]

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