HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Rising floodwaters along the Susquehanna River has forced crews with ‘The Pride of The Susquehanna’ riverboat in Harrisburg to take action and prepare for the worst.
“Really this is unprecedented," said Jason Meckes, Spokesperson with The Pride of The Susquehanna.
“We do have what we’re just going to have to call an act of God at this point," added Meckes.
Jason Meckes, with ‘The Pride of The Susquehanna’ says for the first time since 2011, they are forced to close their dock and postpone boat tours.
“We’re happy to sail rain of shine and it’s not too bad out here, we were sailing yesterday, but when you can’t get aboard the riverboat, that does change things," said Meckes.
The riverboat was taken about a mile up the river towards to higher elevation to Sanctuary Island near the governors mansion.
“It happened so quickly you only have a 24 to 48 hours notice to any sort of event like this so we’re scrambling trying to get get everything in place," said Meckes.
Volunteers rushed to remove electrical wiring along with anything that wasn’t secured to the ground.
Jeff Fortney, who performs maintenance on the boat, says another major issue was getting the dock properly tied down.
“The boat went through this in 2011 and we’re trying to keep a lot of the things that happened in 2011 from happening again like losing the dock," said Fortney.
“So we’ve come up with a plan that we hope is going to work, we don’t know but we won’t know until we try it but by leaving the dock attached and cabled as opposed to trying to get it out of the water which would have been impossible," he added.
“As the river rises the debris increases and more things start coming down, so we’ve got to keep out eyes open," said Meckes.
This is was third time in 30 years The Pride of The Susquehanna boat has had to be moved due to inclement weather.
They are hoping to sail again by early next week.
For all the latest updates you can visit their website at: harrisburgriverboat.com