An empty tow "hitting the hill"

(Satellite, the bank against which the tow "parked")

Tennessee River Valley News posted

Breaking News: Barge Grounded Near Savannah. The barge has been identified as the St Paul from the Marquette Transportation.

Early reports indicate that a barge has run a ground at Wayne Jerrolds Park in Savannah

Unofficial reports say that the vessel was blown off course by the wind and the pilot choose to ground the boat to not risk hitting the bridge over the Tennessee River.

A barge striking the bridge would have caused HWY 64 to be closed for an extended period of time, until the bridge could be inspected.

Developing

Photo credits: Danny Franks

Bobby McCord: It's called "WIND DELAY", shoving in the bank for wind is different than running aground.
Brandon Patrick Horan: Bobby McCord exactly. We were able to move at any point during this so most definitely was not aground.
Gavin Michael: The correct terminology is a tow. A tow is made up of multiple barges. In this case empty barges. The vessel that propels the tow is a tow boat or “push boat”. What he did is a maneuver we call “hitting the hill”. Sometimes we do this to regroup and get ourselves into a better position or to standby for various reasons.
Lori N Garrett Nutt: They drove it off shortly after the pic was taken. I don’t know why it says they were aground. We just call it “laying her in the hill” or “windbound”. Actually this isn’t even newsworthy. It’s a very common maneuver that we all do on a regular basis.
Kevin Lackey: I really don’t see this being news worthy. Having a tow of empties and high wind, they’re like having a big sail in the wind. Its not uncommon to lay them against the bank to wait for the wind to die down or to regroup, back out in the river and get back under way but from what I see, nothing about this situation is aground.
Also, this is common practice for empty tows going up river to lay against the bank to give the right away for down river loaded tows.
[There were several comments about "St. Paul" is the name of the towboat, not a barge or even the tow.]
Jeff Ratledge shared
John Sullivan: That park is in a bend and deep water so I doubt he's aground.

Tiffany Cotner commented on the post
This was around 1:30pm.

Tiffany Cotner commented on the post

Carol Partain Barrier commented on the post

Carol Partain Barrier commented on the post

Bryan Anthony Scott Hines commented on the post, cropped
He was gone in no time!