Midland Flooding

The Midland flooding was a devastating disaster that happened in late May.  If you look at it from a distance, it may seem as though this was only caused by a 7 inch rainfall, but when you dig deeper you realize that there was some major mismanagement going on with the company that ran the dam. This city was also already going through enough problems with COVID-19.

The flood had happened on May 17 after the City of Midland seven inches of rain. (https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2020/05/how-a-spring-rainstorm-became-a-500-year-flood-event-in-mid-michigan.html) After the severe rain, The Edenville power dam failed. The flooding was so bad that it clogged up the next closest dam, the Sanford dam. A hole filled the dam, which caused more spillage. After that it went to downtown Midland. The Tittabwassee river went up 35 ft after the incident. 

There was a tropical storm that weekend named Tropical Storm Arthur. This storm was headed for the East Coast of the country but the effects managed to spread all the way to Michigan, where 10,000 people to evacuated their homes. This also caused main highways like U.S. 23 to temporarily close, an event this bad only happens once every 500 years. (https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2020/05/how-a-spring-rainstorm-became-a-500-year-flood-event-in-mid-michigan.html(

But the storm wasn’t the only thing that caused the floods of Midland; Governor Whitmer said after the flooding that dams like these shouldn’t be on private properties. Donald Trump also included an emergency declaration on May 21 for areas affected by the flood. This provided $5 million dollars to help the victims and city. (https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/midland-failed-dams-floods-caused-200m-damages-2500-buildings )

Management issues started to spark when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave power to the state of Michigan on dam regulations in 2018.Most states have dam regulations at the same level as federal ones, but Michigan has safety standards twice as low as national ones so it would make the dam more likely to break down like it did. (https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/05/20/dangers-edenville-dam-failure-evaded-state-scrutiny/5228559002/)The state of Michigan somehow confirmed the dam to be safe a year and a half ahead of the explosion, plus they also wouldn’t give the company money to use hydroelectric power which would help give the dam more power.

The company that owns the dam is named is Boyce Hydro. This company did not have enough money to supply the dam. (https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/05/20/dangers-edenville-dam-failure-evaded-state-scrutiny/5228559002/) The CEO of the company is Lee Mueller. This person opened up lakes by eight feet without permission from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE for short). He is also refusing to speak to authorities about the issues with his dam. Boyce Hydro ended up going bankrupt after the flooding chaos because of lawsuits.

After the incident, there ended up being $175 million lost due to the wreckage of the flooding, including more than 2,500 homes and businesses were also lost. There is a company named Four Lakes Task Force that is likely to buy the company after Boyce Hydro went bankrupt. They were also likely to purchase it this summer before the flooding happened.