27-05-2025
MEMORIAL DAY: Rained out, but some still braved weather
Wet weather dampened river recreation over Memorial Day weekend, with Grand River Dam Authority shutting down all floats Saturday.
Ava Money manned the GRDA Scenic River Operations office Monday, May 26; she gave the current conditions of the river at about 1 p.m.
"Right now it's 12.76 feet, so it's been rising over the weekend — at the Tahlequah gauge, and at the Chewey gauge it's 11.21 feet," Money said.
That same morning at 8 a.m., the Tahlequah gauge showed 12.06 feet, and Sunday at 5 p.m. it was 10.53 feet, Money said.
"It hit the action point about 9.6 feet," Money said. "Action point is no more [river activities], and other conditions where it's no kids, suggest people move the rafts, and there's turbulence and a lot of debris in the water."
On Saturday, at 2 p.m., levels were measured at 7.15 feet at the Tahlequah gauge – normal is 5.5 feet, and at Chewey the level of the river was 4.84 feet and normal for this gauge is about 4 feet, Money said.
Dallas Smith, Casey Coursey and families spent the weekend camping at No Head Hollow.
"We are from Tahlequah and wanted to get out for the weekend, and it rained for the most part, off and on," Coursey said. "We played horseshoes and just hunkered down during the rain."
Riley Deshon, grounds manager for Diamondhead Resort, was at the resort on Monday, he and his family the only ones around due to the weather. He lives in the area and came by the empty resort to check on things.
"We let people float on Saturday and had about 100 rafts," Deshon said. "We didn't rent out the kayaks as the GRDA shuts down the kayaks on the river at about 7 foot."
"It was flooded, so they sent everyone home for the day [Monday]," Deshon said.
Pam Hazen, War Eagle Resort, said adults only floated on rafts Friday, and Monday they had to evacuate the campground around 9 a.m.
"Saturday we waited until thunder and lighting was over then let people out on rafts, but we've not had any floats since," Hazen said. "We won't float tomorrow. We had to evacuate the campground about 9 a.m. Water was over our bridge [to that site] and so we evacuated before we wouldn't be able to reach them."
At Arrowhead Resort, Austin Spears said at least people were able to float on Saturday.
"We were able to float rafts only and no kids 10 and under on Saturday," Spears said. "Sunday and Monday and today were a washout and don't know about tomorrow yet."
People still came to Arrowhead and campers had to be moved from the camping area on the lower part of the property. He said the weather was typical for a Memorial Day weekend.
"People stayed in cabins and at the RV and electrical camping grounds," Spears said. "We'll have a good season; at least we got to float one day."
alerts were issued by GRDA over the weekend in response to samples taken at the Illinois River at Highway 59 Bridge, Chewey Bridge, Combs Bridge and in Tahlequah.
"The public is advised that high levels of E. coli may be present in these areas over the course of the weekend," stated the GRDA site. "Levels of often rise with inflows associated with the significant rainfall events that have recently occurred and are expected to continue in the area through the weekend."
The site gave safety tips issued by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. These included holding the nose or wearing plugs when jumping into water, washing cuts immediately after swimming, and avoiding swallowing water.
Wearing ear plugs and goggles was advised and people should not swim near storm drains. Parents were urged to take their children to the restroom frequently and use swim diapers on infants. After swimming it is advisable to wash hands for a full 20 seconds before preparing or eating food, stated the site.
Justin Alberty, communications director at GRDA, said the most recent report was Friday, May 23, due to weather conditions.
"Due to high waters and storms over the weekend, it has been difficult for our staff to complete new sampling," Alberty said. "However, we will provide an update as soon as it is available."
