Officials are still waiting for the Ohio River to fall -- and to stay low -- so crews can fix the sinkhole on Evansville’s riverfront. As WNIN’s John Gibson reports, flooding has also been reported in nearby buildings:
Water and Sewer Utility Executive Director Vic Kelson says crews will need weeks of low river levels to keep water out of the sinkhole:
"It would probably be a couple of weeks before we even knew what we need to do to fix it, beyond stabilizing the water pipes and repairing the sewer."
In the meantime, Kelson says crews have back-filled the collapsed area with rock:
"to keep it from, the situation from degrading any faster."
But Troy Wilson, who represents the Masonic Temple at 3rd and Chestnut streets, says the back-filling has caused rainwater to back up in the historic building:
"And we have a massive, probably 4,000 square foot basement that was 100-percent finished now that totally needs to be gutted."
Wilson also says the nearby Trinity United Methodist church basement has flooded.
Utility officials said they would speak with Wilson about the flooding problem.
Meanwhile the utility’s director of operations, Justin Guetling, is asking detoured drivers for more patience and says river forecasts look encouraging:
"We're going to get two to four weeks of below 16 feet, 18 feet river levels and that will extremely help us."
Officials say the sinkhole has already cost the city about a half-million dollar and final repairs will likely be in the millions.
The sinkhole developed on Riverside Drive in late February.
