Dams Fail in Central Michigan; Evacuations Underway

Michigan sure has been in the news a lot lately due to the lockdowns and protests. A few minutes ago this came up on the Weather Channel:

Dam Fails in Central Michigan; Evacuations Underway

ETA: 2nd dam went a few minutes ago: Michigan Residents Evacuated As Edenville And Sanford Dams Fail

National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Emergency in areas downstream of the dam.

Also, the now infamous Governor Whitmer plans to declare a state of emergency later tonight (per her twitter)

It's a good thing the state has a MASSIVE auto insurance reform going into effect in July (which will provide more options for MI drivers to have lower auto premiums). Homeowners premiums will be going up due to higher loss ratios with the insurance companies.

Apparently another nearby dam is also jeopardized now:

Residents in two central Michigan towns were told to evacuate immediately Tuesday evening after floodwaters caused a dam to fail. Emergency officials in Midland County, about 150 miles north of Detroit, had earlier warned residents along Wixom and Sanford lakes that the Edenville Dam was in danger of failure. They told residents to leave immediately around 6:15 p.m. EDT when the dam could no longer hold back the water flowing through its flood gates.

Officials saying the culprit is 3 to 5 inches of rainfall that occurred upstream but there must have been some other factors contributing to the structural failures

ETA - 3 to 5 inches of rainfall (on avg) depending on the landscape, development, geology, etc. could be devastating to I retract the statement about "there must have been other factors contributing to the structural failures"

a reply to: FamCore

Bring it on.

Lord knows this state needs something.

But damn if our governor won't blame this on someone else.
Not her fault

I'm not far from there and I work in Midland, MI which is just south of there. The west side of Midland is being evacuated now as well as people in the Sanford and surrounding areas just north and west of Midland. The Edenville dam broke a little while ago, the Sanford dam is overflowing and is near breaking, bridges are collapsing in the area from the water, roads are being washed out, the Midland County scanner is very busy with evacuations. US10 is being shut down both ways in some areas.

This is my backyard. It's flooding in major proportions like we haven't seen in decades.

a reply to: chiefsmom

I didn't wear my "CT" hat in the OP (thus why this is in Other Current Events forum and not Disaster Conspiracies) but I couldn't help but think of New Orleans and the levies breaking... just a thought

originally posted by: FamCore

Officials saying the culprit is 3 to 5 inches of rainfall that occurred upstream but there must have been some other factors contributing to the structural failure

No, the structures have been fine for several decades, this is just a sh*t-ton of water that has been deposited in the last couple of days.

a reply to: HalWesten

The Edenville dam broke a little while ago, the Sanford dam is overflowing and is near breaking, bridges are collapsing in the area from the water, roads are being washed out, the Midland County scanner is very busy with evacuations. US10 is being shut down both ways in some areas. This is my backyard. It's flooding in major proportions like we haven't seen in decades.

As if the state didn't have enough economic headwinds from the lockdown and fiscal situation... this is bad! I feel for you and your community... stay safe and keep us posted please

a reply to: FamCore

Does the governor plan on ordering no more rain fall or is she going to issue a shelter in place mandate on the remaining threatened dam, demanding it remain in place until she instructs it otherwise?

She's one of those "leaders" who reminds me of the story of Caligula declaring war on the god of the sea, Neptune, and ordering his soldiers to throw spears and fire arrows into the ocean to attack Neptune.

originally posted by: HalWesten
I'm not far from there and I work in Midland, MI which is just south of there. The west side of Midland is being evacuated now as well as people in the Sanford and surrounding areas just north and west of Midland. The Edenville dam broke a little while ago, the Sanford dam is overflowing and is near breaking, bridges are collapsing in the area from the water, roads are being washed out, the Midland County scanner is very busy with evacuations. US10 is being shut down both ways in some areas.

This is my backyard. It's flooding in major proportions like we haven't seen in decades.

Hope those evacuation shelters and rescue operations practice social distancing!

originally posted by: chiefsmom
a reply to: FamCore

Bring it on.

Lord knows this state needs something.

But damn if our governor won't blame this on someone else.
Not her fault

It's a racist dam that wants to make her look bad.

Ban assault dams!

originally posted by: watchitburn

originally posted by: chiefsmom
a reply to: FamCore

Bring it on.

Lord knows this state needs something.

But damn if our governor won't blame this on someone else.
Not her fault

It's a racist dam that wants to make her look bad.

Ban assault dams!

Sexist, too. It clearly didn't listen to the woman in charge, while it obviously would have respected the testosterone display of any man who demanded it not buckle under the surge of water.

Which, by the way, has anyone checked to see if it's actually water causing the dams to fail? It could be tears of those afraid of Coronavirus. Most neighborhoods in Michigan likely weren't designed to handle that much excess drainage.

originally posted by: watchitburn

originally posted by: chiefsmom
a reply to: FamCore

Bring it on.

Lord knows this state needs something.

But damn if our governor won't blame this on someone else.
Not her fault

It's a racist dam that wants to make her look bad.

Ban assault dams!

Whitmer doesn’t need any help looking bad.

She hasn't said squat about declaring the area a disaster area yet either, even though one dam is breached and the other is close to failing with water raging over the top. I'm reading reports from people that live in that immediate area and it's bad. I have a lot of friends in the evacuation area that I've been checking on, although I have no way to contact co-workers that are in the flood zone.

originally posted by: Metallicus

originally posted by: watchitburn

originally posted by: chiefsmom
a reply to: FamCore

Bring it on.

Lord knows this state needs something.

But damn if our governor won't blame this on someone else.
Not her fault

It's a racist dam that wants to make her look bad.

Ban assault dams!

Whitmer doesn’t need any help looking bad.

...she has mirrors. Woman looks like someone set Katy Perry's face on fire and stomped it out with a work boot that had ice cleats attached to it...

I'm curious about this area of Central Michigan. Are there mountain/hills there? If there are that 3 inches of rainfall may translate into more than 12 inches because of drainage from the hill sides. The steeper the hillsides the more runoff into the river and the faster it drains.

a reply to: Metallicus

Hey there Metallicus...great thing huh? First our Gov yells "Hey! Everybody get inside and hide! Its the virus!"...And then all in hurry..."Quick! Everyone hurry and drag your butts out now! Youre gonna drown!"

Great....

MS Michigander

a reply to: HalWesten

No, the structures have been fine for several decades, this is just a sh*t-ton of water that has been deposited in the last couple of days.

I'm not a structural engineer or familiar with the dams but it surprises me that "3 to 5 inches of water upstream" resulted in such a catastrophic failure (however I'm not familiar with the landscape, how the land 'upstream' filters down into the reservoir(s), or how much surface area all of that rain affected)

Thanks for contributing your local knowledge of the situation

How many state crisis does it take to stop electing idiots that create them. The water crisis was totally self inflicted. The staunch virus take that led to protests also self inflicted.

Maybe just think for a minute and stop electing idiots. Willing to bet this could have been averted with proper planning. But keep electing these morons. It is a reflection of yourself.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6

originally posted by: Metallicus

originally posted by: watchitburn

originally posted by: chiefsmom
a reply to: FamCore

Bring it on.

Lord knows this state needs something.

But damn if our governor won't blame this on someone else.
Not her fault

It's a racist dam that wants to make her look bad.

Ban assault dams!

Whitmer doesn’t need any help looking bad.

...she has mirrors. Woman looks like someone set Katy Perry's face on fire and stomped it out with a work boot that had ice cleats attached to it...

matches her personality and intellect perfectly.

a reply to: Cmajlz

I was thinking the same exact thing

originally posted by: Stupidsecrets
How many state crisis does it take to stop electing idiots that create them.

One, and we've not seen it *yet*... that one crisis? Cut off the free money entirely. No more welfare, no more subsidies, no more stimulus, once the Kept Voter is left entirely devoid of personal financial rewards for voting the way they do, they will naturally progress to the same conclusion most of the country that entirely earns their own way has progressed to: "keep your goddamn hands off my paycheck and my freedoms, and leave me the hell alone." The flow of "freebies" needs to end before we can rid ourselves of this ridiculous horsecrap.