Michigan officials assess devastating flood damage

Many central Michigan residents remained cut off from their homes Thursday even as floodwaters receded, with senior citizens among the scores of displaced people staying in shelters after flooding overwhelmed two dams, submerged homes and washed out roads.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who was in Michigan to visit a Ford production plant, signed an emergency declaration authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to co-ordinate disaster relief efforts.

At Midland High School, 90 per cent of people who slept in the school’s gym were senior citizens, said shelter co-ordinator Jerry Wasserman. He said extra precautions were in place due to the combination of the guests’ ages and the coronavirus pandemic. “We had to deal with COVID and then deal with their angst of what’s happened to their house and their pets and all this,” Wasserman said.

In Midland, 61 people spent Wednesday night in temporary shelters. Much of the area remained underwater, including in Midland, the headquarters of Dow Chemical Co. And floodwaters continued to threaten downstream communities.

It could be days before the full scope of damage can be assessed, officials said. No floodrelated deaths or injuries have been reported.

“The damage is truly devastating to see how high the water levels are, to see roofs barely visible in parts of Midland, and to see a lake that has been drained in another part,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who toured Midland County on Wednesday.

The flooding forced about 11,000 people to evacuate their homes in the Midland area, about 225 kilometres north of Detroit, following what the National Weather Service called “catastrophic dam failures” at the Edenville dam, about 30 kilometres northwest of Midland, and the Sanford dam, about 15 kilometres northwest of the city.