Flooding isolates Peebles area neighborhood after low-water bridge overtops

Rising water from Scioto Brush Creek overtopped the low-water bridge on Coffee Hollow Road and left a rural neighborhood near Peebles stranded from Sunday, May 24, until Monday morning. The only route in and out of the creek-side homes went underwater, turning a short flood into a public-safety failure for the people who live beyond the crossing.

The neighborhood sits in a heavily wooded stretch outside the village of Peebles, where the bridge is not a backup route but the community’s lifeline. Residents said they had no way to get in or out for roughly a day after severe flooding pushed the creek over the crossing, underscoring how quickly a storm can isolate families in this part of Adams County.

The Coffee Hollow Road bridge is a county-maintained structure, listed as number 0136972, making the issue a direct Adams County infrastructure problem. Residents said they have been asking county officials for about 30 years to replace the low-water bridge, and they said the crossing floods repeatedly, in some years as often as 20 times. That history has left the bridge at the center of a long-running argument about whether the county should keep relying on a vulnerable crossing or fund a permanent fix.

The stakes go beyond inconvenience. When high water closes the only access road, residents can lose access to emergency response, school transportation, mail delivery and work trips, along with the basic ability to leave home safely. The problem is especially sharp in a rural county where one flooded crossing can cut off an entire pocket of homes in minutes.

Scioto Brush Creek adds to the challenge. Ohio environmental and natural resources agencies describe the stream as part of a 273-square-mile watershed that runs through Adams, Scioto and Pike counties, and they identify a 25.1-mile segment proposed for scenic river designation. The creek’s size and character help explain why storms can move so much water so fast, but they also show that the Coffee Hollow Road bridge sits on a significant county waterway, not a minor ditch.

The same low-water bridge has caused trouble before. In 2008, floodwater created a log jam at the crossing, and the bridge stayed impassable until trees were removed. Separate flood reporting in Adams County in April 2025 also showed Brush Creek high water cutting off residents and emergency vehicles in another part of the county, reinforcing that access failures during heavy rain are not isolated events.

For Adams County officials, the latest flooding puts renewed pressure on a question that has lingered for decades: how long Coffee Hollow Road can remain the sole link to a neighborhood that is repeatedly left on the wrong side of high water.