Macon flood cleanup begins along the Ocmulgee River

Workers fanned out Monday to begin cleaning up trails after more than a week of moderate flooding on the Ocmulgee River.

Department of Corrections work details joined Macon-Bibb County employees on the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail and Spring Street boat landing. Currents piled up sand nearly 3 feet deep in some locations near the playground.

While street sweepers cleared mud from the parking lot, prisoners shoveled sand away from the children's swing sets.

The downtown portion of the trail was the priority as crews came back to work after the holiday weekend, Macon-Bibb spokesman Chris Floore said in a text message.

Six crews concentrated on the river walk, clearing trees that toppled where dirt had washed away.

Three teams of workers also assessed conditions at Amerson Water Park, where sinkholes opened up in fields near parking areas after the initial flooding right after Christmas.

"My biggest concern out here are the sinkholes," said Sam Kitchens, assistant director of the Macon-Bibb County Parks & Beautification Department, who toured both parks Monday. "We want to make sure it's safe before we open back up."

By late Sunday, the water level had dropped below flood stage of 18 feet, so crews got out at first light Monday.

After cresting at 27.77 feet Dec. 28, the Ocmulgee reached another crest of 27.16 feet just before 6 p.m. Friday.

"It definitely changes the landscape," said Kitchens, who surveyed all the Amerson trails late Monday morning and found the Pond Trail still impassable.

Thick mud covered the concrete, too deep even for all-terrain vehicles.

"We built the creek bed so that it could run off and run around the pond, but it's brought so much silt in now that it's literally changed the roadbed and the creek bed," Kitchens said. "We'll have to see how to assess it once the creek goes down enough that we can cross it."

Although floodwaters came up over the railing at the stone observation deck, there was only a little bit of dirt washed out from under part of one trail.

Workers expect the river walk to reopen before the water park.

Crews have gotten accustomed to clearing the mud whenever the river floods, but this was the first moderate flooding since the water works park expansion was completed last year.

"Believe it or not, I'm impressed with the trail and how it upheld with the river coming in the way it did," Kitchens said. "We've obviously got a lot of silt, a lot of cleanup, but structurally I think we're going to be OK."

Floore said much of the work at Amerson Park on Monday was devoted to filling in the sinkholes, but other than that, most of the effects of flooding didn't look too costly.

"We didn't get a significant amount of damage," he said.

Workers will evaluate the progress of the first day of cleanup efforts before officially estimating when the parks could reopen, but Floore said it would likely be next week before Amerson Park would be available.

Telegraph writer Jeremy Timmerman contributed to this report. To contact writer Liz Fabian, call 744-4303 and follow her on Twitter@liz_lines.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 9:29 PM with the headline "Macon flood cleanup begins along the Ocmulgee River ."