KENT, Ohio -- With warm weather in the forecast, Kent police and firefighters are warning of “dangerously high” levels on the Cuyahoga River, where more than 20 people were rescued last summer.

In a news release Wednesday, police Lt. Michael Lewis said the current water level is higher than it was during the summer, so the city is asking people to not go in the river.

“What would already be a very dangerous rescue operation could be potentially more dangerous due to close personal interaction between rescue workers and kayakers,” Lewis said in reference to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Kent fire Capt. David Moore, who is also team commander for the Portage County Water Rescue Team, was leading a training on Wednesday as rescuers practiced bringing boats from John Brown Tannery Park to the island, where most of last year’s rescues happened.

“Last year, we had nine separate incidents on the river,” Moore told cleveland.com. “We rescued over 20 people and one dog, so we’re trying not to replicate that this year. We’re very lucky no one lost a life last year, and we’re also very lucky that we didn’t injure one of our rescuers, because these conditions put our rescuers at extreme hazard and danger."

Moore said many of last year’s incidents were caused by downed trees, which are still an issue this year. Trees can collapse overnight or within a matter of minutes, so even an experienced paddler who scopes out their route could be caught by surprise.

“In these challenging times, every fire department and rescue agency is running at minimum just trying to maintain, so putting in a rescue effort is just adding more challenge to all of us,” Moore said.