Friday, April 17, 2026

Dam Trouble

What happens when you have 20 inches of snow pack quickly melting and days of non-stop heavy rain at the same time?

A really bad time for a lot of dams in Northern Michigan, and for the people living near them. 

The Detroit News: Northern Michigan lake drained after dam failure in Alcona County

The Detroit News: Residents told to evacuate downstream of west Michigan dam

The Detroit News: Cheboygan River remains less than 5 inches from top of dam. Friday updates

Dams with their spillways fully open are still not keeping up with the water, leading to the risks of the dams failing and evacuation warnings and orders have gone out.

Bridges are also at risk of failing with two already having failed: 15 Michigan bridges close, 2 fail as flooding concerns mount 

The views of the massive volumes of water coming out the spillways and still not keeping up with the flood is rather wild to see:


There's lots of homes being flooded and roads being washed out by the force of all the flood water. 

the Detroit News: Northern Michigan lakeshore, homes surrounded by water after flooding

Thankfully, no one had been reported to have been hurt of killed by the flooding and hopefully and in following evacuation orders that will continue to be the case,  It's still a massive and terrible blow to people there having their homes and property destroyed.

The Detroit News: Michigan faces new road challenges from 'historic weather challenge'

It's quite bad up there, but with luck the rains will let up and allow for the dams to catch up with the water flow and avert further damage.

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