Engineers and emergency workers in northern Michigan have nervously watched rising waters at the Cheboygan Dam for days, warning residents that they might have to evacuate.
So far, the dam has held.
But roads are washing out, homes are taking on water and several other dams have been pushed to their limits as heavy rain and melting snow inundate rivers across the Upper Midwest.
On Tuesday afternoon, many in Cheboygan, Michigan, a port city along Lake Huron with 4,800 residents, were told to leave their homes after a levee was breached outside town. On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office in Cheboygan County lifted that evacuation order but warned residents near an inland lake to prepare for a possible “significant influx of water” that could threaten their houses.
“There are many residents currently experiencing flooding inside their homes,” the sheriff’s office said on social media. “If you feel water levels are rising and deem it to be unsafe, you should self-evacuate.”
The levee breach on Tuesday followed days of unfavorable weather and emergency work to shore up infrastructure. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared an emergency Friday as melting snow and heavy rain increased water levels in Cheboygan.
On Monday night, a small dam in Alcona County, also along Lake Huron, had failed. By Tuesday, as state engineers visited several dams facing danger, officials in nearby Antrim County warned people near the Bellaire Dam to prepare for a possible evacuation. On Wednesday, many roads in the region were impassable and residents were placing sandbags outside homes and businesses.
The high water at Cheboygan Dam — 6.6 inches below the top on Wednesday morning — has been fed by melting snow and the heavy rainfall. Northern Michigan began the spring with an above-normal snowpack after a mid-March storm that dumped more than 50 inches in just two days.
The dam in Bellaire, about 80 miles southwest of Cheboygan, has also come under threat in recent days. Officials there discovered a small leak in the berm alongside the dam over the weekend, setting off a scramble to cap it. That process was finished Wednesday, local officials said.
Dangerous conditions were also reported Wednesday in parts of Wisconsin, where the Wisconsin River and other waterways reached major flood stages. Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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