Champlain canal and Erie canal Lock E-19 (Frankford) to E-2 (Waterford) are closed due to recoed flooding damage by hurricane Irene. Further updates will be made next week there is talk that the Erie Canal will take several weeks to repair. A few of my customers I take through the Welland Canal are prepairing to go out the Seaway making their trip to Florida and extra 1400 miles longer than going down the Erie Canal. http://www.canals.ny.gov/index.shtml Rodger
Erie vs Seaway vs Mississippi/TennTom I saw some damage reports of dam structure "sprung" out of place and zero feet of water in the Morhawk River. Might be longer than a few weeks? Troy Locks are also out. Big bummer..
Wow, this is going to really hold some people up and inconvenience a lot of yachts that are going to be heading back south if they don't get the locks sorted out by the end of the month.......
Just ran into this: "Damage atop dams drops water levels near Albany Updated 06:11 p.m., Friday, September 2, 2011 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Boaters along part of the Mohawk River near Albany are being warned to move their vessels because flooding damage to temporary structures atop a pair of dams means water levels may drop below normal at local marinas and docks. The New York Power Authority says Friday that Tropical Storm Irene damaged flashboards used to extend the tops of the Crescent and Vischer Ferry dams. That means the water could drop a foot at Crescent and 2 feet at Vischer Ferry over the next several days. So boats could be damaged in the nearby waters off Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties. The flashboards are used to raise water levels during the spring and summer navigation season." There was previously an emergency situation at the hydro plant due to flooding, but that has been downgraded.
Many of the key canal locks are closed again due to flooding from TS Lee. Does not look good for Great Lakes vessels heading south via the east coast. That post of the dam pictures at #10 & 11 on the Erie suggest they will not be easily repaired to hold proper lock levels, and now they got hit again. Does anyone have knowledge of the likelihood of the Champlain to get back to normal pool levels in the next 30 days, bar another saturating storm??? I am trying to get a 16' air draft vessel out to NY. Evan