{"id":109521,"date":"2026-02-09T23:29:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109521\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T23:29:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:29:53","slug":"vermilion-prepares-for-ice-jam-threat-as-lake-erie-rivers-begin-to-thaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109521\/","title":{"rendered":"Vermilion prepares for ice jam threat as Lake Erie, rivers begin to thaw"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">VERMILION, Ohio (WOIO) &#8211; Below freezing temperatures caused Lake Erie and local rivers to freeze, but the problem comes when they start to thaw.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"The river in Erie County is frozen, but risks of ice breaks threaten major damage once it thaws\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/POXSXNGU4RHQDPOYD65PW2DOXI.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"735\" \/>The river in Erie County is frozen, but risks of ice breaks threaten major damage once it thaws(WOIO)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Vermilion Mayor Russ Owens said a thawing river puts his city at risk of ice jams. Those huge ice blocks move downriver crashing into businesses and homes along the banks of the Vermilion River.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe have an entire community of homes that are in what we call the lagoons that have waterways in their back yards for their boats and we also have homes that are south of the bridge that are right on the water. If we didn\u2019t break the ice they wouldn\u2019t exist. They would be totally flooded,\u201d Owens said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ty Webber manages the Quaker Steak and Lube. It replaced the historic McGarvey\u2019s Restaurant, which was destroyed by ice that swept downstream towards the mouth of Lake Erie in 1969.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe do have a lower section to our restaurant where it\u2019s right on the water so any sort of increase in volume it\u2019s a problem for us,\u201d Webber said.<\/p>\n<p>City prepares ice-breaking response<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Owens calls the breaking of the ice the most crucial thing to the life-blood of Vermilion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more important to the city of Vermilion than making sure the ice is broken so that it doesn\u2019t back up and flood the river,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The city of about 5,000 is watching and waiting for nature to make the next move. Then it will use what Owens calls a huge backhoe to chip away at the ice to relieve the tension of a thawing river.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VERMILION, Ohio (WOIO) &#8211; Below freezing temperatures caused Lake Erie and local rivers to freeze, but the problem&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-109521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-erie","9":"tag-erie-headlines","10":"tag-erie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}