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Storm damage sparks warning for anyone heading out on the water this holiday weekend

The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission is telling boaters to swap out rivers for lakes this weekend. Meantime, river rescue spent Thursday wrangling runaway boats

River levels across Pennsylvania remain high after the heavy rains that brought flash flooding to the state in the wake of Hurricane Ida. 

Now the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is warning everyone this holiday weekend that the heavy debris and fast moving currents can lead to dangerous and deadly situations. 

"The water levels will really be at dangerous levels for the next number of days well into the Labor Day weekend," said Tim Schaeffer of the PFBC.

Instead of boating on rivers, Schaeffer suggested, "if you do want to boat consider going to a lake. Those are waterways that could absorb the rainfall. 

Schaeffer reminded everyone to wear life jackets and warned of the "invisible danger" that can also lie underneath the water with debris people cannot see. 

On Thursday, the power of the debris carried caused two boats to break away at the Riverside Marina and washed away two docks and a walkway. 

River Rescue helped the marina recover the runaway items.

Tuesday, before the storm hit, marina workers scrambled to pull nearly 80 boats to shore along with several walkways in anticipation of damage. They worked from the morning through the night but were unable to get a handful of the boats out before the rainfall started on Wednesday.

"Two of them mother nature took care of," said John Burkholder of the Riverside Marina. "Big logs took them down the river."

He pointed downriver as he added, "there's two docks down there and our crane boat. We can't get them out yet until the water goes back down."

Workers on the Pride of the Susquehanna cancelled trips for both Thursday and Friday as the water took over the boats dock and debris clogged the area. 

"The river came up a lot faster than what we anticipated overnight," said the boat's senior captain Ray Peske. Peske parked the boat a short way up from the dock because he said, "this is the safest place for it to be at this point. There's a lot of debris and open water down at our dock."

Governor Tom Wolf said Pennsylvania moved from recovery to response mode starting Thursday. He said the state will now focus on damage assessment. 

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