{"id":378109,"date":"2026-08-22T05:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378109\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T05:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:00:19","slug":"great-miami-river-drowning-highlights-dangers-of-fast-moving-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378109\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Miami River drowning highlights dangers of fast-moving water"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great Miami River drowning highlights dangers of fast-moving water<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/a>HAMILTON, Ohio \u2014<\/p>\n

Water safety experts are warning people to avoid the Great Miami River as high water and swift currents create dangerous conditions following recent rain and storms.<\/p>\n

The warning comes after emergency crews recovered the body of 47-year-old Eric Blakley<\/a> near the Hamilton dam Thursday. The Butler County coroner identified Blakley on Friday and ruled his drowning an accident. Authorities have not said how he entered the water. <\/p>\n

Members of the Great Miami Rowing Center said they have stayed off the river for nearly two weeks because of its speed, height and floating debris.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely too fast for us,\u201d said Kathy Kremer of the rowing center. \u201cAt this level, you still occasionally see debris coming down. That\u2019s another big factor for us. If there are big pieces of debris coming down, we don\u2019t want to be out on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group regularly monitors the river\u2019s height and flow through the National Water Prediction Service website.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is watching not only the level, but when you click on the point on the graph, you can see the flow,\u201d Kremer said.<\/p>\n

High water can conceal hazards and create currents capable of overpowering experienced boaters and swimmers. Kremer and local officials urged people not to underestimate the danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you think, \u2018Hey, it\u2019s OK. I can get out there,\u2019 or it\u2019s fun because the water moves swiftly, that\u2019s really also a danger,\u201d Kremer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Great Miami River drowning highlights dangers of fast-moving water HAMILTON, Ohio \u2014 Water safety experts are warning people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[152079,18746,27751,152074,32928,152078,62363,48072,152076,152075,24552,123,125,124,992,44558,4503,152077],"class_list":["post-378109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-47-year-old-eric-blakley","tag-dangerous-condition","tag-debris","tag-fast-moving-water","tag-great-miami-river","tag-great-miami-rowing-center","tag-height","tag-high-water","tag-highlight-danger","tag-kathy-kremer","tag-level","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-people","tag-recent-rain","tag-storm","tag-swift-current"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}