Althouse: "About 10,000 people in Mid-Michigan have been asked to evacuate their homes after multiple dams were breached, causing a major flooding emergency."

May 20, 2020

"About 10,000 people in Mid-Michigan have been asked to evacuate their homes after multiple dams were breached, causing a major flooding emergency."

"The National Weather Service on Tuesday evening urged anyone near the Tittabawassee River and connected lakes in Midland County to seek higher ground following 'catastrophic dam failures' at the Edenville Dam, about 140 miles north of Detroit, and the Sanford Dam, about seven miles downriver.... Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in Midland County late Tuesday night, urging residents to see higher ground as water levels were rapidly rising. Gov. Whitmer said Downtown Midland, a city of 42,000 about 8 miles downstream from the Sanford Dam, faced an especially serious flooding threat. Dow Chemical Co.'s main plant sits on the city’s riverbank."

Click on Detroit reports.

34 comments:

AllenS said...: But... they can't leave their homes. Do you want them to catch the Chinese flu?; 5/20/20, 6:37 AM
Temujin said...: It's a shame. Horrible times for those people. The State of Michigan which once proudly boasted the best highways and infrastructure in the nation started to decline in the 70s and has never abated. The roads are a disgrace, especially when you think of Michigan as the home to the auto industry. The rest of the infrastructure is obviously crumbling as well.

They finally started working on roads a bit over the last term of Gov. Snyder, but there is so, so much more do do there. Whitmer ran on getting the roads dealt with. She's not gotten around to that. Wuhan Virus kinda got everyone off track. Oh...and running for President takes your eye off the ball a bit as well.

But hey- with these broken dams she'll at least get more face time on national TV. !! So there's that. Her campaign must be delighted.; 5/20/20, 6:38 AM
Howard said...: Governor Witless once again going full Nazi dicktator after forcing people confined to the house now instead insist that they must leave their house. Can't the silly cow make up her mind? Freeeeeeedooooom (in your best Ozzie Scots accent); 5/20/20, 6:41 AM
JackWayne said...: I’m sure that they will be practicing safe Social Conditioning during the evacuation and aftermath.; 5/20/20, 6:59 AM
mandrewa said...: From the flyover linked to in the article that looks like an earth dam. And the problem with earth dams is that once they are breached, that is the water gets beyond the spillway, they rapidly come apart.

So the odds are good that this was caused by a failure to maintain the spillway.

In the article they claim this is a once in twenty-five year flood event, or perhaps a once in thirty year flood event. But these dams have been around for 90 or so years.

Does that mean that at some point in the past these dams handled more water than this without breaking?; 5/20/20, 7:02 AM
rhhardin said...: Where are tornados when you need them. Floods won't keep newspapers alive.; 5/20/20, 7:07 AM
MayBee said...: Yes, after scaring people throughout Michigan that we are about to die via Coronavirus, she announced yesterday that people in Midland must leave their homes and find someone to stay with (or go to a shelter). But please wear a mask if you stay with someone. So ridiculous. Tell people to do what they need to do, but keep in mind if they start feeling ill in a few days to seek help. Or you know, send a testing unit to the shelters. But overall, Midland county has had few deaths so Coronavirus is the last of their worries right now.

I pray for these people. If anybody wants a treat, look for a video of Whitmer's announcement and watch the sign language interpreter.; 5/20/20, 7:12 AM
Michael K said...: So the odds are good that this was caused by a failure to maintain the spillway.

The same thing happened with the Oroville dam in CA and I'm sure the spillway repairs are still incomplete. One good thing about droughts.; 5/20/20, 7:13 AM
Darrell said...: And the quicker pickeruppers are out at the market!
Egads! Zounds!; 5/20/20, 7:17 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: Hey, Howard.

You are lousy at irony. Now do sincerity.

Try this: Gretchen Whitmer is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I have ever known in my life.

Watch out for that Queen of Diamonds, though.; 5/20/20, 7:18 AM
Wince said...: Can these displaced people move to their second homes ("cabins" as Bernie Sanders calls them), or is that still banned by Gov. Retchin' Whitmer?; 5/20/20, 7:20 AM
RichAndSceptical said...: Does an Emergency declaration override an Executive Order?; 5/20/20, 7:23 AM
Steve from Wyo said...: A 'once in 25-year' flood only means that there is a 4% chance of an event of similar magnitude in any given year. These odds are not additive. The news media does not do math so the 'once in 25 year' (4% chance) or 'once in 50 year' (2%) or 'once in 100 year' (1%) rainfall/flood was a misguided attempt to help them understand.; 5/20/20, 7:33 AM
Birkel said...: This is a proper use of an emergency declaration.
The flooding will recede and the order will go away.
The flooding won't be used as an excuse to subjugate people far from the affected area. (e.g. the UP)

This is a terrible thing, especially because of the government-caused economic times.; 5/20/20, 7:43 AM
Chris said...: Mandrewa: The Edenville dam had inadequate spillways, and their federal power generating licence was revoked.; 5/20/20, 7:45 AM
Greg Hlatky said...: If those domestic terrorists hadn't had that rally, this never would have happened.; 5/20/20, 7:47 AM
tim maguire said...: I had no idea Michigan has been experiencing excessive rain. I don't live that far away and precipitation has been pretty normal.

I can't imagine how they will manage social distancing and being refugees. Social distancing will fail and they will be guinea pigs--if there isn't an outbreak, then we learn something and can benefit from their suffering; if there is an outbreak, then they just suffer more.; 5/20/20, 7:50 AM
Leland said...: Hey, look at that, Gov. Whitmer found a way to extend her emergency powers. Glad I don't live in Michigan.

Bonus, SnowRunner turns out to have a realistic story line (Michigan dam fails, and you have to drive in treacherous muddy conditions to help the economy recover).; 5/20/20, 7:59 AM
Howard said...: I don't even know why they're bothering with a evacuation order most of the people threatened are going to die soon because theyathey either old and obese white retired people or they are diabetes infected blacks and other minorities on welfare.; 5/20/20, 8:17 AM
mandrewa said...: The Orville Dam spillway in California has been rebuilt. It took about a year and a half and I think over a billion dollars to redo.

It was a major construction project. Blancolirio documented the progress of the project on YouTube with several dozen videos.

Fortunately, these dams in Michigan, even though the basic problem seems to be the same, aren't nearly as big a deal. I doubt anyone's life is in danger, and I doubt Michigan's water supply is threatened by the loss of these dams.

In California on the other hand, Orville Dam is the key to perhaps a quarter of the state's water supply.; 5/20/20, 8:31 AM
Browndog said...: This is my neck of the woods, my people. I lived along the river just upstream from Midland for 20 years.

Sanford dam held, so it's not the catastrophe is could have been. The Wixom dam failed, and it's no surprise. the dam owners, property owners, and State have been fighting over the funds to complete the final stage of repairs for a few years. Whitmer refused to cough up the final $83,000 to complete it. The lake was only allowed to be filled at half capacity.

Two days of heavy rains, Sunday and Monday was the back breaker.

Even without the dam break, we were looking at the 3rd highest flood stage for the Tittabawassee river ever recorded.

There is no flooding in downtown Midland, and won't be. Even though Whitmer said it would be 9 ft. under water.

Oh, and she made sure to remind everyone to social distance and wear masks in your evacuation centers.

Everyone hates that woman.; 5/20/20, 8:34 AM
Jack Klompus said...: Howard, most people don't know why you bother. Might be time to curl up with a good Nitschke book. Maybe Thus Spoke Zapatista.; 5/20/20, 8:49 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: What is it about Michigan governors and rivers? Why, why, why does mother nature insist on punishing these selfless public servants with the effluvia of prior generations?

Gretchen Whitmer is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I have ever known in my life.

Leave Gretchen alone! Too bad she killed all those old folks in nursing homes. She didn't mean to.

Actually, assuming she makes it to the next election cycle, I plan to contribute heavily, but legally, to her opponent.; 5/20/20, 9:06 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “ The same thing happened with the Oroville dam in CA and I'm sure the spillway repairs are still incomplete. One good thing about droughts.”

We know what the CA governor is doing with whatever money he has, instead of putting it into fixing the dams and roads - he is putting it into government employee pensions and supporting illegal aliens (and demanding that the rest of us make that money up that he squanders this way). Is MI the same?

We used to go back to MI most summers to see my maternal grandparents, but haven’t been back since the mid 1980s, a couple times when my grandmother died, and then a couple weeks at the IRS Detroit facility. The roads were still great, but Detroit, at least around the IRS plant, already looked like a war zone.; 5/20/20, 9:09 AM
Rosa Marie Yoder said...: There is good news coming out of mid-Michigan's flooding: No reports of lives lost. Let's pray that holds.

Besides that, there's lots of devastation. Hopefully Dow will build the city of Midland once again.; 5/20/20, 9:56 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Not quite the same, but we are expecting flooding up river here in NW MT. A friend in N ID sent me weather stuff yesterday on the rain they were getting due west of us. I expect that it all is being driven by the high pressure area to the south over maybe the middle of ID. In any case, it looks like the Bitterroot, then Clarke Fork, are expecting minor flooding in the next day or so. Probably should nail down the actual day, JIC.

We usually don’t watch the late news, but my partner was still up and didn’t want to really start anything new, so we watched the local (in this case Missoula) news last night. The local homeless encampments was threatened. The pictures of it showed it barely above water line normally. It was interesting because most of the preparation for fighting the flooding appeared to revolve around federal, state, and local authorities making stuff like sacks and sandbags available, and doing a bit of the coordination. But the work was expected to be private and voluntary. But with a nod to COVID-19, there were several warnings to keep social distancing, to the extent possible, but the realization that that wouldn’t be possible.

Not worried down river here. Most everything is well above the 100 year flood level. But what will be interesting today is to checkout our dam. My bet is that it is running wide open today, to dump as much water downriver as they can, before getting the peak later this week. My understanding is that it is the highest dam on the river (and legally, the end of navigable waters, because they brought a steamship up the river one time in the 1800s, and that allowed the state to sell the land for the dam a second time to the power company almost a century after they had done it the first time, with the state Supreme Court ruling that the first sale was illegal because the wrong part of the govt sold it. Same thing over at Great Falls on the Missouri, as well as on the Yellowstone). The town is very likely safe, sitting well above the overflow level of the dam. But I do want to get some pictures of them dumping water today, and then Thurs or Fri as it crests, and overflows the dam. It is a well maintained privately owned (though the power company had to repurchase the land) concrete dam. It isn’t going anywhere.; 5/20/20, 9:57 AM
Browndog said...: The exact moment the Wixom dam blew out

The guy that recorded this probably couldn't believe what he was seeing.; 5/20/20, 10:07 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Let's see how Whitmer tries to blame this on Trump. You know she will.; 5/20/20, 10:46 AM
pokerone said...: Michael K wrote: "The same thing happened with the Oroville dam in CA and I'm sure the spillway repairs are still incomplete. One good thing about droughts."

No, it's back together again. Blancolirio on Youtube did excellent flyover coverage of the whole incident and it includes analysis.; 5/20/20, 12:22 PM
Howard said...: I do it all for you Jack Klompas I have to manage some way to pay you back for the magical space pen.; 5/20/20, 1:03 PM
Browndog said...: Wixom Lake; 5/20/20, 1:05 PM
Michael K said...: okerone said...
Michael K wrote: "The same thing happened with the Oroville dam in CA and I'm sure the spillway repairs are still incomplete. One good thing about droughts."

No, it's back together again. Blancolirio on Youtube did excellent flyover coverage of the whole incident and it includes analysis.

My understanding was that extensive rebuilding of the outflow would be needed, not just patching the failure site. Has that been done? CA has neglected infrastructure since Jerry Brown was first elected.; 5/20/20, 3:33 PM
mandrewa said...: blancolirio, or Juan Browne, posts a comment on the Michigan Dams and the purpose of emergency spillways.; 5/20/20, 6:08 PM
mandrewa said...: Michael K, they moved a huge mass of material. They didn't just patch things up. They rebuilt a significant part of the ridge around which the dam was originally built.

Most of the money for it came from the federal government.; 5/20/20, 6:11 PM