State Parks officials unsure how to remove stuck car. Windy weather may do it for them.
By Thomas J. Prohaska
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NEW YORK (The Buffalo News) — New York State Parks officials haven’t figured out a way to remove the car in which a Williamsville woman died Wednesday from the brink of Niagara Falls without endangering more lives.
But there’s a chance the forecast high winds for Saturday might push enough water down the Niagara River to dislodge the car and send it over the falls to crash amid the rocks at the base of the cataracts.
Late Friday, the black Toyota remained stuck in an estimated 4 feet of water about 30 to 40 feet from the brink of the American Falls.
No one is certain what is holding it in place.
The powerful flow of the mighty Niagara – at least 50,000 cubic feet of water every second when New York and Ontario hydropower plants are on their winter settings – shoved the car a short distance after the body of a local woman in her late 60s was retrieved Wednesday afternoon by a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer rappelling from a hovering helicopter.
“We are continuing to consult with rigging and engineering experts to identify a method for removing the car from the Niagara River, while protecting the life and safety of those at the scene,” a State Parks statement said Friday afternoon.
“It has been determined that the car would have to be manually rigged in order to get anything hooked to remove it,” the statement continued.
“Currently, this would require human intervention 30-40 feet from the brink of the Falls which places an unacceptable level of risk on first responders,” the statement said.
“We are continuing to seek alternatives and will provide updates as they are available,” the Parks statement concluded.
While that search for alternatives continues, Mother Nature might provide more water to push the car loose and drive it over the falls.
The National Weather Service has posted a high wind warning from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday for most of Western New York, including Niagara and Erie counties.
The warning predicts sustained southwest winds of 35 to 45 mph, with gusts as high as 65 to 70 mph.
A sustained strong southwest wind could push water from the entire length of relatively shallow Lake Erie into the Niagara River and eventually over the falls, said Lauren Schifferle, a civil engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers.
This weather event, called a seiche, has happened most recently on Halloween night 2019, according to a report by the International Niagara Board of Control.
The water level in the Niagara River jumped by about 20 inches that night as strong winds pushed Lake Erie water downstream toward the falls, and the amount of water going over the falls temporarily increased that night by about 50%, the report said.
“It could be stuck in such a way that more water will dislodge it, but that’s not something I know,” Schifferle said. “We don’t know if more water will push it over or more water will wedge it in, because I don’t know what it’s stuck on. I don’t think at this point it’s worth any human going out to find out, that’s for sure.”
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