[Rhodes22-list] Flooding Due To Dam Failure

[Stephen Staum]

Roger,

Sorry to hear of your disaster.  I already feel guilty sailing solo or with
my wife only during our pandemic isolation.  Now I feel more guilty given
your situation.  I had a marina retrieve, store and launch my boat for the
1st time this year having always done this myself.  They even did the
bottom paint!  I have never been in the water before the 1st week in June
so this is a new experience for me.

I hope you get the lake cleaned up and are able to sail soon.

Stay Well,

*Stephen Staum*
*s/v Carol Lee 2*

*Needham, MA*


On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 5:34 AM ROGER PIHLAJA <Roger_Pihlaja at msn.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Well, the last 48 hours have been very costly.  My house is on Sanford
> Lake, the southern most of 4 artificial impoundments on the Tittabawassee
> River.  Sanford Lake is ~10 miles long and ~1300 acres in area.  I live on
> the west side of the lake ~7 miles north of the Sanford dam.  Going north
> from my house, Wixom Lake is about 3 miles away by water.  North of Wixom
> Lake, there is Smallwood Lake and then north of that, Secord Lake.  Of the
> 4 lakes, Wixom Lake is the biggest at ~2000 acres.
>
> We got ~7 inches of rain starting Sunday afternoon thru Tuesday morning.
> At ~14:00 on Tuesday, we got the alert that the Wixom dam had failed.  I
> was surprised at how slowly the water rose.  With a dam failure, you might
> expect a “wall of water” to come roaring thru.  But, it took several hours
> for the water level to rise.  My house sits on a bluff ~30 feet above the
> water and I had a beach and a 12 ft X 40 ft deck built over the water.
> Normally, S/V Dynamic Equilibrium would have been in it’s slip alongside my
> dock.  But, it was safely on its trailer in my driveway.  Anyway, our deck
> was submerged ~3 feet underwater for ~2 hours in swift current before it
> failed and was swept away.  Unfortunately, our floating swim platform was
> tied off to the deck and was swept away with it.  The rack for
> launching/retrieving/storing our RIB was tied off to a big tree, so it’s
> still with us.  Once the flood got going, my normally placid lake turned
> into a 200 yard wide, class 4 rapid in front of my house!  There were
> standing waves, and whirlpools.  Tons of debris, storage sheds, boats,
> docks, boat lifts, and uprooted trees went past my house.  The water level
> rose up to about waist deep on the 1st floor of the houses in the flood
> plain on the west side of the lake.  Deb & I watched an incredible disaster
> unfold in slow motion looking out our dining room window.
>
> Electricity, cable TV, internet, and landline telephone are all out.  We
> are running on our natural gas-fired whole house back-up generator.  I am
> using my i-phone as a mobile hot spot to get on the internet to write
> this.  We have a well and a septic field and lots of stored food.  Deb and
> I both have a bag packed and we have an escape route planned if that
> becomes necessary.  However, we believe we are better off sheltering in
> place vs. evacuating.  We can live here a long time W/O any assistance.  At
> our elevation, half of Midland county would have to be flooded before the
> water would even reach the lower level of my house.
>
> Unfortunately, our inflatable Walker Bay RIB, the Honda outboard, and the
> trailer were all in storage at Johnson Mini Storage, which is very close to
> the Wixom dam.  I can’t get over there to see; but, I expect the storage
> facility isn’t there any more!  The radio says the Sanford dam was
> breached; but, the lake level is still ~10 feet above normal summer pool.
> So, I presume the Sanford dam is still standing, at least for the moment.
> The radio also says Secord dam and Smallwood dam are in trouble.  But,
> although Sanford Lake level is still high, the current has slacked off a
> lot.  So, the upstream dams, except for Wixom dam must still be standing,
> again at least for the moment.
>
> As bad as we have it, the folks downstream of Sanford dam are in real
> trouble.  The radio reports record flooding in my hometown of Sanford and
> in Midland, where I used to work at Dow Chemical.  The Tittabawassee River
> literally runs right thru the Dow Chemical complex in Midland.  I hope they
> were able to get all the chemical plants shut down safely!
>
> So, although I could have done a few things better, we are both OK and
> safe.  Life here on Sanford Lake is not going to be “normal” for a long
> time.  Even if I replace my dock, I think there is going to be so much
> debris in the lake that sailing is going to be impossible.
>
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>
>
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>
>