Edenville Dam collapses. Wixom Lake takes another beating. Sanford too?

[djkimmel]

If you haven't seen yet, Governor Whitmer ordered a State of Emergency for the Midland area after the Edenville Dam failed today due to high water and flooding. A large hole broke open in the earthen part of the dam spilling tons of water into the Tittabawassee earlier today (Tuesday, May 19, 2020).

People were ordered to evacuate around Wixom Lake and Sanford Lake earlier in the day followed when the Edenvilled Dam collapsed by evacuations through Gladwin and Midland County with parts of downtown Midland flooded, US-10 flooded and many roads closed. Power and service outages were spreading.

I'm seeing reports just within the past 20-30 minutes that the concerns about Sanford Dam have come to pass as that dam has now failed as well! Earlier, water was pouring over the top of the Sanford Lake Dam as there's just too much water coming through for flood gates to handle.

Authorities are expecting the river to crest later this morning around 29.9 feet, ~5 feet over flood stage. Earlier reports put a possible crest much higher even. The Governor reported parts of downtown Midland could be under as much as 9 feet of water! Many schools, a local mall and other facilities have been turned into emergency shelters due to the large numbers of people being evacuated throughout the region.

Midland County emergency personnel have reported the waters rose much faster than expected and new, unexpected paths of floodwaters have created a quickly changing situation effecting large areas. The waters in this flood have not followed previous flood patterns. They expect this flood to surpass the bad flood of 1986 by 4 feet!

If you're in that area you must keep checking local emergency sources as they are doing a reportedly good and timely job announcing changes and orders. Two previous evacuation centers were closed and moved after flood waters put them in danger as well.

No idea what this means for the future of fishing for these two lakes. The hole through Edenville Dam is huge. The groups that came together to refill again Wixom Lake recently had reported they had the money to deal with the aging Edenville Dam, but this is the worst possible issue to deal with. I haven't seen picture of the Sanford Dam since earlier video and pics showing massive flooding with water pouring over the top of the dam. Don't know of the dam has collapsed, or if it is just the water overwhelming the height of the dam. We'll find out tomorrow I'm sure.

Hope the people I know who live in that area are all safe. There were pictures earlier before the dam failed of heavy flooding throughout homes around Wixom Lake. I see reports now that the Rifle River has also reached flood stage. We need the rain to stop.

[djkimmel]

National Weather Service is still forecasting the Tittabawassee River in Midland to crest tomorrow at 38 FEET!! The previous highest flood there was 9/13/1986 when the river crested at 33.89 feet!

That was the flood during my first full year fishing the federation series when we ended up camping in the small store parking lot at the old campground on the Grand River all the tournaments used to launch from. I forget the name. It's near the bridge across Stearns Bayou.

I'll never forget the fishing at that event overall because everything was so different due to flooding - most of everyone's spots were washed out from high water, and I won my first federation tournament from the back of one of the 'old-time' veteran's boats mostly due to blind luck. He fished one of the few spots that wasn't washed out, and then later in the day we tripped over a huge school of 'flood' bass where a weird new spinnerbait I had got a bite almost every cast.

I was actually bummed because I caught a bunch of bass there but in the end only 1 was a keeper. Think I had 2 or 3 keepers from the morning spot so I thought I had a poor tournament. Turns out everyone else had an even worse tournament! That poor guy took some horrible ribbing over my luck. He still remembers...

That was the same flooding that blew out the dam on fabled Rainbow Lake - probably the best giant bass lake in Michigan (private - 8 to 10 pounders were caught) until that dam blew out. Hard to believe some of these floods are/will be even worse than that tribulation!

Good luck to everyone in that area.

[bob o]

sad day for sure, 2500 dams in Michigan, I hope their condition is good still