Russians?
Cyber attack?
Hamas?
Donald Trump?
MSG in Chinese buffets?
Mexican cartels?
Big pharma?
Aliens?


Or…

Clem didn’t put a second half hitch while tyeing up barges??

Shipt happens.

The cause? Can't be a tugboat driver problem, can it? Let's hear from you barge captains.

Yep, Pennsylvanians..

Not good

Naw, never seen anything happen that could cause barges to come loose.

Notice anything missing? A little pressure on the winch line to snug things up before we cut loose from the dock and wheeee.



Those are 18-20 inches tall, maybe 10" around, and 3/8 inch steel as I recall. Probably had been on there without an issue for 20 years. When it came off it went wizzing past me at head height, maybe 20 feet at most to my right. That cable would normally be on the back bollard.

This is obviously caused by global warming and racism.

A barge, or maybe even a couple of barges might “break loose”, and get pushed into stuff by the current. I can buy that.
But when 26 barges get loose, I have a tough time buying that they “Broke loose”.
Reon

Maybe not 26 barges. But some number of barges get away from tows and tugs on a regular basis on the Ohio River around Cincinnati and Loserville (Louisville).

It happens but doesn't make the news until something is damaged. My stepson worked on the Lower Mississippi 18 years. He has several stories about the tow hitting bottom or solid obstructions and breaking up the tow. Then they have to try to catch the.loose barges and tie them back together.

Bingo!

Your son is correct.

Just like no one ever hears about big ships losing power and rudder control in the open ocean.

Amish terrorists

Wrong pronouns

We had 7" of rain when this happened. Massive flooding. The juniata was running 15 ft. They broke loose due to the huge flooding

My thought as well.

Dang. Did you even have time to duck, or was it one of those “ WTF just happened” moments?

All part of the plan to make us dependent on big pharma.

We're at the saturation point for sure, flooding is hitting the city and streets. I have trees falling from the high winds, after all the rain the ground is soft.

Same with the Titanic...

Blamed it on an Iceberg.

Like Q said, "Watch the Water."

SOrt of "POP-twang" when the thing came off and the wire came free. I was maybe 20-30 feet back from it, one of the tug guys was a bit closer but not in line. Guessing because the wire came around the outside of the back barge to that one, it had enough of an angle on it that it got sent into the river and not back onto the barge I was standing on. The tow was almost made up, deck guy had just tightened up the winch, the tug Capt moved us a little, it was a little bouncy from the spill from the dam, and that was it.

I may have been able to duck as I was facing it when it happened, watching the guys on the front barge. It wasn't scheidt yer pants scary...................but close.

As long as my boomer welfare check is on time I don't care.

I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Ooops!

Barge breakaways are very common on the LMR, especially during high water. Most of the time they are rounded up without issue.

Back when I was on active duty, we ran a case where a barge cable snapped and nearly cut a deck hand in half.

Like Cessna 152s augering into 113 potato chip manufacturing plants??????


Oooooo…..awwwwwwwww, ohhhhhhhhh.

Oh yes, forego my turkey season……stay home and monitor mother earth news

Until you’ve seen big stainless cables under such stress that the strike of an axe snaps them like dried spaghetti you can’t appreciate the true strain they can take.