Michigan dams fail, cause flash floods and evacuation of 10,000 Michiganders

Midland County emergency management told people in Midland City, Michigan, located west of Eastman and south of US 10, to evacuate immediately Tuesday afternoon as the Eastman dam breeched its threshold and broke.

A slow-moving storm spread over Michigan, with heavy rains over a period of several days, triggering fear that dams would fail and flood warnings would be issued across the state.

Tittabawassee River and Rifle River reached major flood stage on Tuesday afternoon, sending dams past their breaking point, according to AccuWeather.

Areas around Midland reported 3-4 inches of rain since Sunday morning, which produce a severe amount of runoff, causing substantial rises on the river system.

“A very slowly moving storm system and cold front pushing through the Midwest has produced anywhere from 100 to 200 mm (3 to 8 inches) of rainfall in just the past week from the western Great Lakes through northern Indiana and into southern Missouri,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jack Boston said.

Edenville Township residents based along Saford and Wixom lakes were strongly urged to evacuate their homes until Wednesday. Shelters have also been set up at schools in the area.

Officials in Arenac County and Gladwin County, Michigan, asked residents to move out of the area due to the failure of the dam from flash flooding along the Tittabawassee and Cedar Rivers.

Around 1 a.m. Tuesday, the Saginaw County Emergency Management Team reported that an Edenville dam failure in Midland could greatly impact residents along the Tittabawassee River in Tittabawassee and Saginaw townships.

But the dam failure should not have been a surprise, as it was known that the dam's owners had not addressed safety issues—especially the dam's ability to withstand a major flood.

Midland County Emergency Management stated, however, that the Edenville and Sanford dams were structurally sound but spilling floodwaters.

Of the 2,600 dams in Michigan, more than 80 percent of them are older than their 50-year-old design life, which raises issues of future flooding due to crumbling dams across the state.

"At this point, the water is still rising from all of the rainfall we received over the last couple days and it will continue to do so throughout the day," the Midland County Central Dispatch Authority said Tuesday.

The Tittabawassee River in Midland reached major flood stage on Tuesday when the river made it to 28.46 feet, according to a Midland County news release. But the river is expected to reach 38 feet before it begins to subside.

A flood warning remains in place for the Tittabawassee, from Midland to Saginaw, and the forecase does not show any indication of relief for Midland.