GRC Park Preps for 4th

VINCENNES, IND. (WTHI) -      Some extreme summer weather is having an impact on the 4th of July celebrations all over the Wabash Valley.

     In Vincennes city officials are expecting around 10,000 people to gather downtown to take part in the parade and fireworks over the Wabash River.

     A severe storm over the weekend has workers scurrying to clean-up one of the main focal points of the celebration.

     Sunday's severe storm brought down a lot of trees in Vincennes.

     The George Rogers Clark National Historic Park was one of the places that had a lot of tree damage.     

     "It left behind quite a bit of debris, some trees had to come down, but mostly some trimming and clean up," said George Rogers Clark National Park Superintendent Brian McCutchen.

     The park staff are doing a lot of the clean up in a hurry.

     The park is expecting thousands of visitors onto the grounds as people flock in to watch the city's 4th of July fireworks.

     "They are going to have a lot of people coming here, so our intent was to have the park as cleaned up and safe from limbs and foliage as possible, so that's it, the timing couldn't have been worse in that regard," said McCutchen.

     Despite the rain that came with the big storm, the grass at the Park is still parched and dry.

  Knox County still has a burn ban in effect, and the Park Superintendent is also banning items this 4th of July that could cause a fire threat.

     "If it burns don't bring it," said McCutchen.  "Sparklers, fireworks, smoking is banned on the entire National Park area because the majority of the fires in this area have been started been started by dropped cigarettes."

     Park Rangers and police will be enforcing the rules to try and keep the thousands of visitors on the dry grounds safe.

     Highlights of the 4th of July activities in Vincennes include a parade through downtown starting at 6 p.m.  

     The fireworks over the Wabash River will begin at 10.