The former site of Schooner’s restaurant, near the marina at Adams Landing in Guyandotte, sinks into the Ohio River on Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. An adjacent building was also sinking.
HUNTINGTON,W.Va. — The barges that held up Schooner’s Waterfront Grille and an adjacent building on the Ohio River in Huntington’s Guyandotte area began taking on water early Monday morning, and they are in the process of sinking.
The property owner and a crew of maintenance workers have been trying to pump enough water out of the barges to keep the upper structures from submerging, working constantly during Monday’s bitter cold.
“We don’t really know what happened,” said Jason Tolliver, who owns the two buildings. “It was fine yesterday at about 6 p.m. When we got here this morning at about 7:30, it was taking on water.”
Workers from Godwin Pumps out of Sissonville, West Virginia, were on scene helping pump the water out.
“We’re trying to get a pump, it’s a 12-inch pump, pumps 4,000 gallons of water per minute, we’re trying to get that inside the basement to get it started,” Tolliver said.
When asked about damage estimates, Tolliver simply gave a grimacing smile and said “A lot…