NEW RICHMOND — The Ohio River has spilled over its banks.

After consecutive days of rain, those who work or live along the river in southwest Ohio are dealing with flooded roads and water-filled challenges. Business owners in New Richmond are some of them, many forced to close their doors.

It’s a shocking sight as the Ohio River continues to flood towns like New Richmond.

Cars are abandoned in the blocks near the Ohio River in New Richmond (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

For Becca Light, she and her husband opted to stay at their restaurant, the Green Kayak.

“We’re kind of old school in the sense that a captain doesn’t leave their ship, first of all,” Light said. “But second of all, we have the ability to stay upstairs and still keep an eye on everything downstairs.”

But that decision proved effective when they realized more water was threatening their equipment.

The view from outside the front door of the Green Kayak (Photo courtesy of Becca Light)

“Steve and I went ahead and put some extra blocks under our beer coolers and you can see the water is still meeting up with the coolers," she said.

The city of New Richmond hasn’t seen a flood worse than this since 1997, when the Ohio River crested at 64.7 feet. This time, it’s expected to crest at 60 feet, but the water seems to continue to rise.

“We just finally decided to take a quick little power nap this morning and woke up to two more inches of water, even after they called the supposed crest," Light said.

Six to eight inches of water have flooded into the restaurant of The Green Kayak (Photo courtesy of Becca Light)

While the business owners can’t do much until the water begins to recede, they’re hoping to get things cleaned up so they can open their doors again.

“It’s always a catastrophe to try and get the water out, the flood mud out, get everything cleaned up and see what you can save," Light said. "And as far as from the businessstand point, you can’t open until everything is cleaned out and safe. We may be looking at every bit of the end of the week.”

Light said while it’s been a tough few days, it shows the strength of their village and she hopes to see neighbors from other communities rallying behind them.

“This town absolutely comes together when we have to and in this situation we had to,” she said. “It won’t surprise me to see people out taking care of each other once this water goes down, because it’s what we all do. I have a lot of outsiders reach out to me that aren’t from New Richmond but come to New Richmond to visit and they’re like, how do we help? I’m like, ‘Well, when the water comes down, come get dirty is all I can say.’”