Ohio
Crews work overnight to recover 26 barges that broke loose on Ohio River
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Twenty-six barges that broke loose from a towboat on the Ohio River Friday night are accounted for, according to the Pittsburgh District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Now, crews are recovering them after they damaged local marinas and rest at a local lock and dam.
Wayne Jones was sick to stomach Saturday morning, looking at what was left of the marina he’s owned for more than 40 years.
“I could cry,” Jones said. “It’s my whole life.”
After breaking free on Friday night on the Ohio River, 26 barges now accounted for
The Branchport Boat Club in Pittsburgh’s Chateau neighborhood was torn apart after runaway barges smashed the docks to pieces, just two weeks before it was set to open for the season.
“I built this place. It’s my baby,” Jones said. “I can’t make no money.”
Pittsburgh police said 26 barges got loose around 11:30 p.m. Friday, and started floating down the Ohio River.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard and Colonel Nicholas Melin with the Pittsburgh District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told KDKA that they broke away from a towboat by the West End Bridge.
Twenty-three barges were carrying dry cargo like coal, but no hazardous materials. The three others were empty.
At this time, they said there were no contamination or pollution reports, and no one was hurt.
Eleven of the barges got pinned against the riverbank by Brunot Island. Col. Melin said nine stopped at the Emsworth Dam. The last six went through the dam and were accounted for downstream. Officials believe one barge sunk between the Emsworth Dam and the Dashields Dam.
In the process, the barges took out Jones’ club and a part of Peggy’s Marina in Chateau.
“It’s a nightmare, total absolute nightmare,” Melin said. “What am I going to do?”
Col. Melin said the Emsworth Dam is functioning normally.
“There’s no concerns with respect to passing water and the safety of the waterway at this time,” Col. Melin said.
While a cause is unclear, he believes the high water levels played a factor.
Campbell Transportation Company owns and operates the barges, located just downstream from the West End Bridge.
In a statement to KDKA, a spokesperson for the company reiterated this happened under “strong currents due to flooding in the area.” He also said their “immediate priority is ensuring public safety and minimizing any potential environmental impact.”
“Those docks give me about $200,000 a year,” Jones said.
As for Jones, he’s said it will cost him just under $1 million to replace the marina. He’s trying to figure out what to do for the 85 boats that planned to dock at Branchport on May 1, hoping he’ll still get to take some of them in, in some way.
“Property is property, it’ll get fixed,” Jones said.
The incident remains under investigation as crews work to recover the barges.
Having lived with Donald Trump’s infamous and baseless insult against them — “they’re eating the dogs … they’re eating the cats” — Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are bracing for a far bigger injury.
More than 10,000 Haitians across Ohio and hundreds of thousands more around the country who had Temporary Protected Status now face the imminent prospect of deportation. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can halt those legal protections for Haitians and Syrians and resume forcing them to leave.
Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion for the court’s Republican-appointed majority curbed the power of courts to review government decisions to terminate protections under the TPS program.
“They side with him on everything that he says or everything that he does, which means there is no check and balance,” said Viles Dorsainvil, a Haitian TPS holder and executive director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, a town Trump catapulted into a maelstrom of misinformation about immigrants when he was running to retake the White House in 2024.
“The president has that freeway in front of him to do whatever he wants to do, unfortunately, and most of the time to a minority group of people,” added Dorsainvil, who has lived in the United States since 2020.
In a country rife with political and economic instability, Haitians returning from the U.S. are in danger of being killed or kidnapped, said Dorsainvil’s colleague at the Haitian Support Center, Rose Thamar Joseph.
“There is this perception in Haiti that if you are living here in the United States, you have money, so you are living your good life, so sending people back to Haiti will put them in real danger,” Joseph said.
Staying in the U.S. without legal status creates a different crisis.
“We received calls this morning from people saying that, unfortunately, starting on July 1, they won’t be able to go to work anymore,” Joseph said Friday.
Joseph predicted that families would be separated during the deportation process.
“We know that there will be separation,” she said. “A lot of those parents with TPS … they have kids who were born in the United States, so we know that it will happen, not for everybody, not for all the families, but it will happen,” she said.
The oncoming nightmare for the Haitian community in Springfield was, in many ways, predictable after Trump notoriously targeted them on the debate stage against then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the fall of 2024.
The Oregon Ducks and coach Dan Lanning have lost out on a top offensive lineman target for their 2027 recruiting class.
On Friday, four-star interior offensive lineman Caden Moss committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes, per On3’s Hayes Fawcett. The 6-5, 320-pound offensive lineman from Jackson Academy in Mississippi chose the Buckeyes over Oregon, Ole Miss, LSU, and Kentucky.
In his commitment post on Instagram, Moss said, “Go Bucks, I’m home.” Moss arrives at Ohio State rated as the No. 72 overall player nationally and No. 7 offensive tackle in the 2027 recruiting class, per 247Sports Composite rankings.
How Moss Commitment Impacts Oregon’s 2027 Recruiting Class Ranking
Despite the loss of Moss to their 2027 recruiting class, the Ducks are ahead of the Buckeyes in the rankings, per 247Sports. The Ducks are No. 6 in the 2027 recruiting class rankings, while the Buckeyes are two spots behind Oregon at No. 8 overall in the country.
The Ducks and Buckeyes, the way things stand at the end of June, have the two best 2027 recruiting classes in the Big Ten and are the only schools from the conference currently ranked inside the top 10. Oregon, however, has four more commits than Ohio State following Moss’ commitment to the Buckeyes on Friday.
The four Big Ten teams behind the Ducks and Buckeyes, but inside the top 20 of the 2027 recruiting class rankings, per 247Sports, include the Penn State Nittany Lions (No. 13), USC Trojans (No. 14), UCLA Bruins (No. 16), and Nebraska Cornhuskers (No. 18).
Oregon and Ohio State’s 2027 recruiting classes are very similar as they both have 11 total blue-chip commits, per 247Sports, including two five-stars and nine four-stars.
Oregon 2027 Offensive Line Commits
While wide receiver Dakota Guerrant and edge rusher Rashad Streets are Oregon’s two five-star commits in the 2027 recruiting class, the Ducks have four offensive line commits despite the loss of Moss to coach Ryan Day and the Buckeyes.
Offensive lineman commits in the Ducks’ 2027 recruiting class include a pair of four-star recruits, Gus Corsair and Cameron Wagner. Three-star commits Avery Michael and Lex Mailangi also highlight the offensive line commits in the Ducks’ 2027 recruiting class.
Over the course of his four seasons as coach of the Ducks, Oregon has been known for its efficient offensive line play, building one of the best groups in the country. In the last four seasons, the Ducks have been the only school to have their offensive line named a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award.
With the commits in Oregon’s 2027 recruiting class, along with the returners that the Ducks have for the 2026 season, the offensive line looks to continue that trend heading into a year with national championship expectations.
As for the Buckeyes, Ohio State hopes that a dominant offensive lineman can help it continue to be a Big Ten championship and national title contender consistently, as it looks to avenge last season’s loss to the Miami Hurricanes in the CFP Quarterfinal at the Cotton Bowl.
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