Evacuees Flee From Homes as Flood Overtakes Michigan Cities After Two Dam Failures

Governor Gretchen Whitmer considered the ongoing flooding was one of the worst the state had seen. She said that local authorities would conduct an investigation on the dam operators. During an aerial assessment, the governor said that it truly was "devastating".

In Sanford, waters reached as high as windows on the first story of buildings, and vehicles were almost completely submerged.

Longstanding failure of dam capacity

According to a report by Michigan Radio, the week-long rain accumulated enough water that led the river to overflow. The City of Midland, they said, was bracing for the worst as communities from Sanford and Edenville were also forced to leave their homes.

The news reached the White House. President Donald Trump made an announcement on Wednesday calling for the federal government to keep themselves updated on new developments in Michigan. He urged residents to stay safe and listen to the instructions of the local authorities.

A bridge in Midland collapsed and residents were cut off from electricity, according to reports by WILX. In a document published in September 2018, regulators attributed the flood to the "longstanding failure" of the hydropower generating dam to bolster the spillway capacity of the project to safely pass the flow of the floodwater.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee reported that the main priority would be the safety of the residents in the heavily impacted areas. The investigation into the breach would be directed by dam operators Boyce Hydro Power, LLC.

In addition, Chatterjee said that FERC would send an engineer from the staff to the site. The committee would be coordinating with state officials for the entire duration of the investigation.

On top of handling the coronavirus crisis, Whitmer said that it would be doubly hard for the evacuees to practice social distancing and isolation measures in evacuation centers. She said that matters must be taken more seriously than ever before, especially since 79 of 83 of the state cities were at moderate to high risk of coronavirus.

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Officials warn of more flooding

Local enforcement like the Michigan State Police, National guard, and emergency first responders spent the whole night helping residents find shelter.

As of yet, warnings from the Michigan Department of Transportation advise to stay away from state roads due to flooding. On Wednesday, they sent notifications to residents of flooding in certain places in several counties.

Reports by the National Weather Service warned of extremely dangerous and life-threatening flooding that would continue through the week in various flood warnings. They added that it was the result of failures at the dams in Edenville and Sanford.

Large companies like Dow Chemical also confirmed that the floodwaters were "commingling" with containment ponds on-site. Their headquarters were in the city of Midland, and so they coordinated with the U.S. Coast Guard to initiate and send out emergency response plans.

They assured that commingling did not mean there would be any immediate threat to the residents or cause damage to the environment.