CZ, are you still good and above water?

I am hoping the best for everyone from MI involved in this flood. We don't get a lot of updates here.

So far so good
Videos available on YouTube
Just look for Wixom lake dam

Can this be true ?
Michigan Attorney General Nessel and Governor Whitless have their fingerprints all over the massive dam failures that destroyed so much of the Midland area.

Excellent article in Detroit Free Press. (Having problem loading link)

Federal regulators revoked the operating license for the Edenville Dam in September 2018 due to having inadequate spillway capacity, only able to safely pass 50% of the Possible Maximum Flood event. (PMF) The dam owner prudently lowered the lake level by 8 feet to provide storage capacity to "protect employees and downstream residents." At same time, Federal regulators ceded control and responsibility for the dam to the State of Michigan.

In April of 2019, the Michigan AG sued the dam owner for lowering the lake level without state permission, and illegally killing millions of endangered mussels. Dam owner refilled lake to full capacity. Back story was that thousands of upscale lakefront homeowners and the local county governments wanted the lake refilled to "Save Our Summer" and restore property values and tax revenue. The huge lake was quite shallow and the 8 foot drawdown created wide mudflats along all the shorelines.

May 2020 - the Possible Maximum Flood event occurred and without the extra storage capacity, the Edenville Dam overtopped and collapsed. Released flood waters destroyed the downstream Sanford dam and waters from both reservoirs raged downstream to Midland and on down the Saginaw River.

As it happens, a fair number of people at my gun club live, or are used to live, on the lake.

It was the lakefront owners who did not want to pay an assessment to have a lake behind the Boyce power owned damn, that had only recently formed an authority to sell bonds to rebuild the dam.

This has been a more than a decade long argument.

Boyce lowered the lake level for safety and repairs, But the lakefront owners, through the Michigan Attorney General, sued to have the lake filled back up.

Understand, that the lake level has always been lowered in the fall, to prevent ice damage.

It’s a shame, that the lakefront property owners had to drag their feet for years, before they came to the realization that if you want a lake you have to have the dam.

Now they have neither.

Just another example of the 21st Century American ethic: "MY toys come first!" We will see more such results, I fear.

Great coverage on Fox today. Damn that water looks full of ugly brown sediment. Don't know what is downstream, but hopefully a healthier, free flowing upstream section will result.

All flood water is full of sediment.
That's why floods make such a mess.

What is downstream is the world's, that is WORLD's, best Walleye fishery.

The DOW chemical company's world headquarters is in Midland, MI, is straight downstream, and they got an awful rinse as well.

The river is rising here still, as the surge continues downstream.
The heavily damaged, Smallwood, and Sanford lake dams are holding.

My peak should be Friday.

Weather here is beautiful.

Smallwood dam over flow
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rLuZuUwCyRA

Wixom lake post burst
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SF0c1eyuiJs

Sanford dam
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TQKZZu4BnUc

OK, been wanting to know,

Did the water come up to your yard?
Near the house?
In the house?
How deep?
Thanks
Mike

It was about 9 feet deep in front of my house, but then it went down, now it’s at about 2 feet and slowly rising.

Because the Sanford Lake dam did not buckle completely, they’re expecting about 2 foot less surge in my area.

So, if my ability to survey is accurate, It should come up in my front yard but should not enter the building.
In the one video, that curved bridge is the one that I just set last summer. So that water is 35 feet deep because it was 35 feet from the top of the bridge to the to the surface of the river.

I really hope it doesn't enter the first floor of your house, CZ.

Best wishes friend. SRH

I will second Stan's hope for your house to remain dry. I can say from experience, a flood can turn your life upside down even if your house is spared.

It took 5 years for the roads to be repaired between my house and town after our "500 year flood" in 2013. I fared far better than my neighbors living below me but it still made for some very difficult times.

Wishing you the very best.
Steve

Like the old saying, God willing and the creek don’t rise!

Thanks guys

I couldn't figure out why the water was so low in front of my house So, I drove down to the end of the road To see.
Well it turns out that the flood gates are closed, so, the head of water on the other side of them is about 6 or 8' higher than where my ditch ends.
so what that means, is that If the floodgates fail, or if They are topped,I lose about 8' of elevation out of my ditch. So, if it weren't for the flood gates being closed, I'd be right back where I was a couple of days ago.

It was very strange, driving along the levy Seeing the river with in a couple feet of the top, but It being higher than The cab of my truck flowing by.

The roads are all water covered two miles down.

Crest is tomorrow sometime.

Good luck, keep us posted.

The river crested at 10 this AM.
I dodged the bullet.

The reason I did not get flooded or should I say have waters around my home, is because of the gentle breeze from the south west that is blowing the water out of Saginaw Bay.

The Saginaw River flows straight north 12 miles into Saginaw Bay, it’s a river of commerce.

A northeast wind (think fall and winter storms), pushes water back into Saginaw Bay from Lake Huron, and raises river water levels.

The high-pressure system that arrived after the storm, accompanied by the southwest wind due to the expanding warm air from the west, pushes the water out of Saginaw Bay and pulls the water out of the river more quickly.

So, we’ve reached the crest With no rain expected for three or four more days and I can go back to my normal routine.

Thank you for all the well wishes, and naturally I am very grateful that things worked out.

Good news. Glad to see you are safely out of it. Floods worry.me more than other disasters for some reason.

CZ, I'm very glad you dodged the bullet with this flood. I hope the waters recede and give you no more problems. But, one question keeps bugging me. Why does a "greyman" tell the location of his house, and describe it (170 years old ....... stone)?

The greyman concept is to blend in with every other person in the "crowd" and draw no attention to one's self. Spotting the location of your home, and describing it, is not the way to do that.

?????????? SRH

Old stone houses are common in this area.
People emmigrated, cleared some forest, found out the glaciers left great building material, and used it.

My unimportance is pretty secure.

Now that the Coronabowl is over downstate, I can go back to unrelenting obscurity within the mass.

And remember, first leave no trace. LOL!

I dunno, man. Naming your county isn't exactly what I would call "leaving no trace".

Good luck with that. SRH

Meta data harvested and available via a common cell phone leaves no man grey, regardless of what he believes. There exists a version of the hellfire that is non explosive, and will kill you in your car, leaving bystanders outside uninjured. If you have a phone, you can be instantly targeted.

https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairw/20190525.aspx

Grey disappeared a long time ago.

Best,
Ted

Dang, Zapper

Survive a flood just to get turned into cole slaw by a ninja ginsu missile.


____________________________
https://youtu.be/P3MUQKD_GOE

My lack of importance provides more security than a concrete bunker ever could.
I’ll ask Q’anon

Some people constantly live in total paranoia. You, definitely, are not one of them.

Lack of self-importance and lack of paranoia; refreshing.

+10

Importance and self-importance are light years apart. One can be extremely important to others without feeling their own value.

SRH

The first question they ask a paranoid at the mental health center is, “why do you think you are important enough for the government to be out to get you? “
And if that’s the gist of it

I celebrate my lack of importance.

The conversations about this flood, are complicated, because while beyond what I consider a level of healthy concern, I was prepared for I it. The hardest part was moving stuff around.

But, the facts are, that within just a couple miles of here, there are tens of Thousands of people who’s lives were upended.
So, it would be inappropriate, for me too report too much on my fascination with the power of nature. Watching a damn burst on live TV is an awe inspiring event.
Seeing a 2000 acre lake turned into a Sandune is awe inspiring.
And seeing a massive bridge that I just installed under 30 feet of water with trees hanging from the road deck is very cool. But it’s just a bridge.

The poor devils that lived and worked just downstream from the bridge well, nice not so hot for them now.

You cannot lose sight of all of those people just on the other side of the hill from me, who are suffering.

And it’s more important for me to worry about their well-being.

What stuck out when we got flooded was the rallying of regular folks out helping each other. When my wife and I started filling sand bags a neighbor noticed and within minutes there were 20+ people at our place. The worst can bring out the best. It was humbling.

I’m glad the flood didn’t get you.

This government won’t get you. But, nonetheless, the tools are very much in place for one that would. Lack of importance did not save the 100 million people it is estimated that lost their lives to government in the last century.

Few of them were any more important than you.

Best,
Ted

They first suspected I had Cancer in 2009.
Told me I would die from it in 2010.

Yet here I am still.

All that worrying gets in the way of living.

Gotta go over to Sanford and shovel mud for a few hours.
No one will even notice I was there.
Just the mud that got moved out to the street.

Well CZ, you might want to look like you're waiting around for help at an appropiate distance. Pick up a shovel and appear to be gett'in it done with a bunch of other folks will probably get you noticed by your governess.

Naw, glad things worked out okay for you folks. Watch your back, your shovelling technique that is.

I got over here. I walked up to a building that had a guy moving stuff out to the curb. I asked him did he mind if I helped? He said knock yourself out.

It was that easy.

I am glad that I have coal shovels, They skim the mud so nicely.

Coal shovels and grain scoops would be pretty handy I reckon.
Good work.