Before and After Photos Show Just How Much Broken Dam Drained Lake in Michigan
Devastation followed the failure of two dams in Michigan last week.
The Edenville Dam failure allowed the waters of Wixom Lake to rush down the Tittabawassee River. When the raging floodwaters hit the Sanford Dam downstream, it, too, failed.
The extent of the water that flowed out of Wixom Lake was so great that images showed the lake bed where docks still stood, but without any water around them.
Video and pictures on Twitter captured the extent of the flooding, and what was left behind. The lake was drained to the point where the Detroit Free Press christened it “a giant beach.”
Before, after view of Sanford, #Michigan (first: Google Earth, second, snapshot from @mspbayregion Michigan State Police ) – immediately below Sanford Dam. #flood #dam #disaster https://t.co/FWqSsqUMb0 pic.twitter.com/BLJJHPQ2ql
— AI6YR (@ai6yrham) May 20, 2020
Wixom lake is gone! ? pic.twitter.com/GiVi3ctNQ2
— Maersk (@MJordanH313) May 21, 2020
Aerial footage shows scale of flooding in central Michigan.
Two “catastrophic” dam failures forced 10,000 to evacuate, with the National Weather Service warning of a “life-threatening situation.”https://t.co/wwwGmyK1bM pic.twitter.com/UjWEseFb5h
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 20, 2020
Wixom Lake where my in-laws had a cabin… The lake where the Dam failed ??? pic.twitter.com/YKrtBuaHH8
— Louie G ?????? (@LouGarza86) May 20, 2020
2 dam breaches in Michigan are causing severe flooding, forcing evacuations and threatening a major toxic cleanup site. Here’s the latest. https://t.co/SbgKMnDEgg pic.twitter.com/9baWRJvugr
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 20, 2020
Damage assessments continue after flooding around the Sanford Dam and Edenville Dam, which burst and caused widespread flooding, forcing thousands to evacuate in Midland, Michigan. https://t.co/hXBD7x21cu pic.twitter.com/KG3BDOapzp
— ABC News (@ABC) May 22, 2020
As a result of the flooding, about 11,000 people in and around Midland, Michigan, were told to evacuate.
Beaverton resident Mike Desco admitted he took some persuasion when first told to flee, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“My neighbor, Big Frank, came pounding on my door,” he said. “He said the dam broke and we had 40 minutes to get out.”
“I was like, ‘No, I don’t think I’m going anywhere. I’ve heard this story before,’ ” he said. Then he looked outside and saw the water rising.
“Then, I heard the fire truck: ‘EEE! EEE! Evacuate! Evacuate!’” he said. “When I heard that, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I think we’ll go.’”
Midland resident Rodney Feinauer said that battling the flood waters was hard work.
“You could hardly row in it,” he said. “I’ve done a ton of rowing in my day. It was intense. But you gotta do what you got to do. It was a little hairy.”
Bev Thompson of Sanford returned from evacuation to a scene she never imagined.
“I just stood there like, ‘Where is my house?’ ” she said. “I see my washer and dryer. But where’s my house?’
“I lost everything,” she said. “I don’t believe it. I’m totally in shock. It used to be right there next to that fence. There’s nothing there. I don’t know where it went. It could be in the woods back there.”
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