Flood water on river reaches highest levels since 1980
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Baldwin County (WALA) — Area rivers continue to see historic flooding as the waters in some areas reach their highest point in 40 years. Folks at Hubbard’s Landing on the Tensaw River say it’s the highest they’ve ever seen.
The Mobile River has crested at 17.2 feet at Barry Steam Plant. That makes this flood the highest water folks in Baldwin County have seen since 1980. There is no landing to be seen at Hubbard’s Landing north of Stockton. It was swallowed up over the last week and now sits somewhere beneath more than 10 feet of water.
“The highest I’ve ever seen it was…well, there’s a bulkhead right here. It was halfway up that last year and that’s the highest I’ve ever seen it,” Said Hubbard’s Landing co-owner, Paul Bryars.
Bryars has been around the river all his life. He said high water is expected this time of year and he knew this was coming but had no idea it would get so high. He’s concerned he could lose the next few months of business.
“Even if it goes down and we still have rain, my campground stays soggy,” Bryars explained. “Well, I can’t have boats, trucks and campers and everything else coming in, but not only that. Why do I say April – May? Just history. Just because when we used to see it this high, it takes a while for it to go down.”
Power was shut down to the RV hookups at the campground Tuesday, February 25, 2020 and water has now crept into some of the cabins on higher ground. Closer to the river, one home has more than three feet of water inside and others are threatened.
Debbie Hudgens used to own a camp there and drove from west Mobile to see the situation for herself.
“I was just curious to see how far up it had come and I have never seen it where you could not at least turn and go down in front of the store,” Hudgens said. “This is bad.”
For now, everyone and everything that can is just sticking to higher ground until the water begins to recede.
The National Weather Service said the water should begin to go down in the next day or so but will take a while to get back to normal levels. Meanwhile, as a safety precaution, EMA officials are asking people who don’t own property along the river to stay away until the waters subside.
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