MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Nashville showboat is waiting out the flood in Memphis after the Mississippi River rose too far to safely make it under a bridge.
The General Jackson Showboat is a pleasure cruise boat that operates on the Cumberland River in Nashville. The crew was on the way back from New Orleans, where the boat was having some scheduled maintenance done.
But due to the high water, the 55-foot-tall boat can’t make it under the Interstate 51 bridge on the Ohio River near Cairo, Illinois, so it’s docked for now at the foot of Beale Street.
The captain says Memphis was an ideal place to dock and tie the boat, and there was nowhere they could do that around Cairo.
Half the crew was sent home. The boat could be in Memphis another week.
The Mississippi River at Memphis is expected to crest later this week at 39.5 feet, just six inches below moderate flood stage and five feet above minor flood stage.
The bridge at Cairo has been closed to traffic since Friday.
