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This Video of a Tiki Bar Sinking into the Ohio River Is a Condensed Disaster Film

Looks like this "floating restaurant and bar" can't float too well :-(
This Video of a Tiki Bar Sinking into the Ohio River Is a Condensed Disaster Film
Screengrab via YouTube

The Ohio River has been seeing some pretty choppy waters lately thanks to some nasty flooding. And now, it's claimed a casualty in the form of a beloved Tiki bar in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

Captain Mike Rauen’s RiverWatch Floating Restaurant & Bar has been around Lawrenceburg for 16 years, serving up "Landlubber's Steak Hoagie" and "USS Shroom" burgers. There is—or was—also a Tiki bar attached to the restaurant, fastened to the main building and suspended atop a body of water.

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This scaffolding wasn't quite sturdy enough, apparently: On Sunday morning, as WCPO reported, the bar was swept away by the furies of the Ohio River. The slow, painful capsizing has been captured in a dashcam video, below, which is essentially a condensed 23-minute disaster film:

According to FOX19, police forces in Lawrence were tipped off to the sinkage by a passerby who noticed the Tiki bar disintegrating on Sunday morning. Officers rushed to the scene, and though no one was hurt, law enforcement couldn't do much to save the bar. It just went straight into the water.

Rauen, who did not respond to immediate request for comment from MUNCHIES on Tuesday, was understandably crestfallen about the loss, which WCPO suspects may cost as much as $100,000. "It's [a] tough, tough time on the river," Rauen told WCPO.

RiverWatch is traditionally open from the months of April to October, a period during which it turns into a popular hotspot for locals. Rauen has reportedly pushed this year's opening date back to April 30 to account for the loss of the Tiki bar.

Still, he and his team are, per a post on the restaurant's official Facebook page Monday, determined to be resilient in the face of this devastation. They also clarified that the barge is "lost," disputing press reports intimating that it's straight-up disappeared; it's pretty damn clear that the Tiki bar is just sitting at the bottom of the water.

"We are very saddened by the barge sinking we are extremely fortunate that at the time no one was injured nor was anyone on the boat," the post read. "Items can be and will be replaced…. and that is exactly what we are going to do. We are planning on opening towards the end of the month and we will keep you informed on what is to come."

Please do! We could really use a Mai Tai.