Races halted: ; Rain dampens Jet Ski contests; Officials forced to cancel racing series because of high water, debris

High, fast water and debris in the Kanawha River brought an earlyend to Sunday's Jet Ski races.

After overnight rains swelled the Kanawha by at least 5 feet,officials were forced to cancel the day's events at Magic Island,which were part of a national Jet Ski racing series.

Troy Snyder, a racer from Bradenton, Fla., was able to scoop abasketball and softball out of the river for his son.

He also saw a refrigerator float down the river along with a tree- branches, leaves and all.

"It makes you not want to litter after seeing this," said Snyder,who was expected to take third place in the Pro Am Stock Runaboutbased on his performance on Saturday,

Snyder and other competitors in the Toyota Governors Cup Pro JetSki Racing series wondered why all the debris was in the river tobegin with and if it would have been possible to hold it back orscoop it up.

"I think they should have come down and scouted the site beforethey did it here," Snyder said.

Still, Snyder, a former motocross racer who has raced personalwatercraft for 15 years, said it was the best event he had been toall year.

"The town, the people, the hospitality, all that stuff - it wassecond to none. It was just the water," Snyder said. "They had tocall it before someone got hurt."

A lot of racers had spent a lot of money to come to thecompetition, which was called before they had completed more than athird of their expected races.

Besides the debris atop the water, submerged logs can pop upunexpectedly - a bit like a surfacing whale - to impale riders ordamage the high-end, race-ready personal watercraft, which costthousands of dollars.

"They're almost alive," said Brandon Cummings, marine sciencetechnician third class with the U.S. Coast Guard, of the logs.

"It's not uncommon for people to underestimate the power of theriver," he said.

Coast guard technician 1st class Patrick Wolford said the Kanawhaappeared to be moving twice as fast as usual, at about 4 knots tothe normal 2. A knot is roughly equal to 1.2 miles per hour.

Up the river, the Marmet Locks and Dam holds and releases waterto regulate conditions upriver from Charleston.

"They are trying to hold back what they could," Wolford said."But you can't stop a log once it's rolling."

In the Elk River, which dumps into the Kanawha a stone's throwfrom Magic Island, swirls of sticks, leaves and what looked likesome oil, along with a pink volleyball spinning in circles, headedunder the Lee Street bridge straight toward the area where racershad been planning to compete.

The rain didn't ruin everyone's Charleston weekend, though.

In the finals of the EVP Rocks the River Pro Beach Volleyballtour's stop at Magic Island this weekend, the team of Erin Grey andRenee Bizzier took the women's crown while Wayne Scott and BenShamrock took home the men's title.

Just blocks away, the Suddenlink Ribfest was going on as planned.

Bill Picozzi, who founded the festival 11 years ago, said rain onThursday put a damper on things, but good weather on Friday andduring the day on Saturday and Sunday made the turnout appear aboutnormal.

He said he appreciated the events on Magic Island, which wereorganized separately.

"I think it was a surprise to a lot of them that a major Ribfestfood festival was going on," Picozzi said.

The festival features "world-class, awarding-winning barbeque ribvendors" from across the country.

"The bottom line is it's all good for the city of Charleston,"Picozzi said.

TOM HINDMAN/DAILY MAIL People try to retrieve buoys that weredragged down the Kanawha River as rising water cut short the ToyotaGovernors Cup Pro Jet Ski Racing series at Magic Island on Sunday.