Flash flooding in Michigan rips apart roadways
Floodwaters destroy streets and sidewalks in Houghton, Mich.
Northern Michigan saw devastating floods over the weekend that washed out roads and left behind dozens of sinkholes.
Some areas of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula saw up to seven inches of rain as strong storms hit the state, particularly the Keweenaw Peninsula. More than 60 road washouts and sinkholes were reported by Monday morning, according to WLUC-TV.
The National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency in parts of Houghton County Sunday.
“This is a pretty wild experience that we are having here,” Tom Cowell of Chassell told the news station. “We got a pretty decent chunk of rain last night. The majority of us can’t even get home. Roads are collapsed. Bridged are collapsed. Roads are covered in water.”
In Houghton, officials rescued a 12-year-old child who became trapped in a basement due to the floods early Sunday morning, WLUC reported. First responders and the father dug the young child out of the collapsed basement and administered CPR. As the roads were washed out, a neighbor’s boat was used to help transport the child to a dock, and the 12-year-old was eventually air-lifted to a hospital.
The weekend storms also caused what is known as a meteotsunami on Lake Michigan in Traverse City, which is south of the Upper Peninsula, WZZM-TV reported. A meteotsunami is a large wave that is caused by storms, according to the National Ocean Service.
Michigan Technological University in Houghton remained closed on Monday due to the flood damage and asked people not to come to campus.
In some places, Michiganders were using boats to travel instead of cars, according to MLive.com.
Weekend storms also brought extreme flooding to northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, washing out roads there, too, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
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