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Flooding becoming bigger problem for Michigan

Frank Witsil
Detroit Free Press

Detroiters are still wringing out their lives, two weeks after torrential downpours swamped roadways and homes. 

"It's sad to see," said Matthew Ruffino of Grosse Pointe, who just days ago posted a picture on social media of a flooded Detroit home in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood. "I really hope the water will recede faster so people can start picking up their lives — and fix what they need to fix."

Climate scientists predict an escalation in extreme rainfall and storms that will lead to more Midwest flooding and could cost taxpayers more than $480 million annually just to adapt urban stormwater systems to handle the deluge.

Nearly two weeks after heavy rains flooded homes, property in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood of Detroit was still underwater. Photo taken on Saturday, May 11, 2019.

Ruffino said the house he photographed on Saturday looked like it was sinking. Others more accurately commented that it was the water level that changed, being 1-2 feet higher than it should have been.

Heavy rains combined with high lake levels at the end of last month forced homeowners in the neighborhood to protect their property with sandbags. Water still swamped basements, living rooms and made roadways impassable. Some of it lingers.

Overall, an estimated 3,000 homes were damaged in Wayne County, prompting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to declare a state of emergency and activate local emergency response and recovery plans.

In addition, the heavy spring rainfall has contributed to surging Great Lakes water levels which are adding to the flooding and threatening wildlife, including the piping plovers, endangered shoreline birds that lay eggs in beaches which are being washed out.

Read more:

Endangered piping plovers face trouble from surging Great Lakes levels

Trapped residents rescued by boat as Detroit, suburbs hit hard by flooding

In Dearborn Heights, where some of the worst of the May 1 flooding was, firefighters waded through chest-high waters and used an inflatable boat to rescue residents who were trapped.

Outer Drive at 94 has been shut down due to heavy flooding in Allen Park on Wednesday, May 1, 2019.

On Tuesday, city officials said a few residents are still struggling to get rid of the water.

"Our residents are pretty resilient," said Lee Gavin, Dearborn Heights emergency management coordinator. "They've been through it. They get right to it and get stuff cleaned up."

Most of the flood debris in Dearborn Heights and other communities has been piled at curbs and picked up, and the state Department of Health and Human Services has been offering assistance with furnaces and hot water heaters ruined in the flooding.

Dearborn Heights officials also are urging residents to support an Army Corps of Engineers project to mitigate future flooding on Ecorse Creek, which has been discussed since 2004.

The city said that the plan, if approved, should benefit not only Dearborn Heights, but also Taylor, Inkster and Allen Park.

A worsening problem

Flooding has long been a problem in Michigan, a state surrounded by water.

It is so much of a problem that Detroit's website warns that the city "regularly faces the hazards of flooding," and that it "tends to be caused by heavy rain." The heavy rainfall, the city adds, "can also overburden the sewer system."

This spring, more than half of Michigan is expected to experience minor flooding, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In August 2014, a deluge — dubbed a 500-year flood because such rainfall was statistically supposed to happen only once every five centuries — caused an estimated $1 billion of damage. 

Up to 6 inches fell in in just four hours.

Michigan's worst modern flood disaster was in September 1986, when 6 to 12 inches of rain fell in a 160-mile, west-to-east swath that went from the Muskegon area to the Thumb.

The flooding overran dams, killed six people and injured 89 more.

In recent years, the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization, has been warning that rising water levels on the seas are increasing the risk of chronic flooding for the next 30 years.

A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which likely means more rain.

And a 2018 report by U.S. Global Change Research Program on climate change concluded just that: Annual precipitation in the Midwest has increased by 5% to 15% in 1986-2015 compared with 1901-1960. 

Winter and spring rainfall, the report added, are projected to increase by up to 30%. Heavy precipitation has increased in frequency and intensity since 1901 and is projected to continue increasing through this century.

The extreme rainfall, the report concluded, overwhelms storm water sewage systems, disrupts transportation and damages infrastructure — including damaging bridges — and property. 

Changes in temperature also can pose challenges to infrastructure, the report said. Extreme heat creates stress on road pavements, bridge expansion joints, and railroad tracks.

Surging water levels

Water levels are now surging in the Great Lakes and expected to set records this summer, according to forecasters. It is causing heavy erosion and flooding in some areas, which is a worry to many homeowners.

Even before the flooding earlier this month, metro Detroit communities — particularly those on the shores of Lake St. Clair and connected waterways — began urging residents to take precautions, such as stacking sandbags. 

Sandbags have been laid in front of a house on Klenk Island in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood in Detroit to prevent water from flooding the houses across street, Wednesday, May 1, 2019.

Jefferson Chalmers — on the city's east side, just west of the Grosse Pointes, where Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River come together — has a variety of housing, including bungalows, ranches, and mansions.

It also is one of the seven areas where the city has said it plans to invest $130 million to improve commercial corridors and boost the park system. 

Ruffino, 28, said he has been eyeing homes to buy in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood, which is full of canals, because he enjoys kayaking and would love to live on the water.

But, he said, after recent flooding in the neighborhood, he is having second thoughts.

In the long term, Ruffino said, infrastructure improvements, such as higher walls to hold back overflow water from the river, might be helpful in preventing future flooding, especially if climate change causes water levels to rise.

Flooding risks are likely to be an increasing problem for all homes near water.

The Union of Concerned Scientists looked at rising sea levels and concluded last year that an acceleration of water level increases, primarily driven by climate change, would put more than 310,000 coastal homes in the United States at risk of flooding.

The analysis, the report said, was a conservative projection and it didn't take into account major storms. The report also suggested that chronic flooding would hurt property values and cause tax revenues to fall. 

In Michigan, rising lake levels would have a similar effect on waterfront residences.

"It's pretty crazy," Ruffino said of the flooding he has seen in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood. "It's hard to know what is the cause of it. It could be global warming. It could be something else. I just know that for many years, it hasn't been this high."

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.