1 Year After MI Dam Failures, Memories Of What Was Lost Remain

SANFORD, MI — When Will Wood was a child, he'd look out the front window of his childhood house and see small waves forming on Sanford Lake. He'd watch as the water would rise up and crash down on itself repeatedly.

There are memories of riding on pontoon boats, jet skis and swimming. What was essentially his front yard when growing up was a decent-sized lake, offering endless opportunities for summer fun and entertainment.

But when Wood, now 31, looks out that same window today, he sees something more easily described as a barren wasteland. It's something he said is almost like a scene out of a post-apocalyptic video game.

"There's no part of it that's a lake," Wood told Patch in a phone interview Tuesday from what was once the beach of Sanford Lake. "It's just like, stumps and sand and vegetation."

Wednesday marks one year since the failures of the Edenville and Sanford dams, which led to widespread flooding throughout Midland and Saginaw counties and the emptying of Sanford Lake. The floods prompted the evacuation of thousands of people stretching from Midland County to Saginaw County as water levels increased rapidly.

Businesses were damaged. Lives were changed. Properties were destroyed. Lost in the issues caused by the dam failures was that the once-fun lake has been turned into a Michigan desert.

"It's weird because every morning I would look up, look out and see the lake, and now I see that," Wood said. "It's still a weird thing to look at."

A '500-Year Flood'

Heavy rainfall was the beginning of what would ultimately be the end for the Edenville and Sanford dams, which are located near Edenille and Sanford, respectively. The Edenville Dam is located where Wixom and Sanford lakes connect in northern mid-Michigan. The Tittabawassee River flows south from the two lakes, through Midland and to Saginaw, where it connects with the Saginaw River and Shiawassee River in the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.

Storms carried heavy rainfall across the entire lower peninsula on May 18, 2020, with the heaviest of rain falling in the northeast and north-central parts of Michigan's bottom half. More than 4 inches of rain fell in Gladwin, which is upstream 25 miles of Edenville, according to MLive weather reports from the time.

On May 19, 2020, an alert was issued through Midland County Central Dispatch telling people living in the area of the Edenville dam and the entirety of Edenville Township to leave their homes, claiming "imminent dam failure" due to the downpours and rising water levels.

People living along the lakes were told to leave their homes. Wood was one of them. He compared the alerts that came through his phone to Amber Alerts — a jarring, attention-grabbing noise.

"It happened like nine times that day," he said.

The Tittabawassee River reached 26 1/2 feet high on the morning of May 19, 2020. The flood threshold is 24 feet. Wood recalled seeing the water swell alongside the lake's seawalls.

"The water was getting higher and higher and higher," Wood said. "It was just getting up to where the grass was, and I was just like, 'It's not real.'"

Midland County emergency personnel ruled that the dams were structurally sound that same morning, according to reports, but noted that they could not contain water flowing through their spill gates.

As things grew more concerning, Wood and his girlfriend left their home, traveling to a friend's house away from the water.

"Everybody went their separate ways," he said. "We put all our stuff up and tried to be as present as we could be, or as calm as we could be about it, but it was still kind of like weird."

As people drew close together in homes to wait out the flooding and see how bad things became, an added juxtaposition was that it was taking place during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wood said he and his girlfriend wore masks and tried to be respectful while trying to stay safe.

"We couldn't really even talk to our friends that much, so we stayed away, wore masks and stuff and tried to be respectful, but it kind of felt weird," he said.

Later that night, a flood alert was issued in Midland County before an emergency text message to residents urged them to evacuate as an initial dam breach caused the Sanford Dam to allow water through its 24-foot flood stage.

The M-30 bridge over Wixom Lake collapsed around 8 p.m. on May 19, 2020. Soon after, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a state of emergency for Midland and Midland County.

Related: MI Governor Issues Emergency Declaration After 2 Dams Collapse

At a news conference from Midland the following day, Whitmer would refer to the flooding as a "500-year flood," noting how rare such a flood was.

The Aftermath

On May 20, 2020, it was all hands on deck for people in the areas of the two failed dams and the downriver communities of Midland, Midland County and people in parts of Saginaw County.

The National Weather Service reported that the flood stage on the Tittabawassee River had reached 34 feet.

Wood said he found out he was one of the lucky ones when he returned home and noticed his home hadn't flooded. But other homes had.

"The people across from us, like right across the street, they had 4 feet of water in their living room, and we didn't get anything," he said. "We're just literally across the street. I don't know how it really happened, but that's how it happened.

"We were just watching videos, like boats getting destroyed and a house floated down the river," he recalled. "There's all this crazy (stuff) was going down, and it was really, really incredible."

As people reviewed the damage to their homes and properties, Wood said he remembers neighbors helping each other out almost immediately.

"My parents would drive up and down the street with water for everybody," he said. "And that was the smallest of things."

Finger-pointing over who was responsible for the dam failure began almost immediately, with reports of malfeasance regarding bridge maintenance.

According to The Associated Press, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revoked the license of the company that operated the Edenville Dam in 2018 due to compliance issues that included spillway capacity and the inability to pass the most severe flood reasonably possible in the area.

The dam was built in 1924 and was rated in unsatisfactory condition in 2018 by the state. The Sanford Dam, which was built in 1925, received a fair condition rating.

Both dams were both in the process of being sold, The Associated Press reported.

One Year Later

A year after the dam failures and subsequent flooding, state authorities continue to investigate why the dams failed and how to ensure similar occurrences don't happen again.

"A year has passed, but for the families and businesses affected by the dam failures it surely feels like only yesterday," said Liesl Clark, the director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. "We had personnel literally on the dam just prior to its failure, and since then we've engaged continually with community leaders to provide scientific, logistical and technical support to help them recover from this disaster."

EGLE oversaw emergency work in recent months to draw down water levels in the Tobacco River, which is upstream of the remaining portion of the Edenville Dam. The state has tried monitoring water quality levels, removing debris and preventing further damage to natural resources in the area.

Clark said that with the help of the Michigan Legislature, the agency is moving forward on the recommendations from external reviews of its program, including additional staffers that allowed the creation of a separate Dam Safety Unit within EGLE's Water Resources Division.

"With the help of the additional staffing provided by the Legislature, we've strengthened our efforts to ensure state-regulated dams meet or exceed all safety requirements," Clark said. "The recovery and restoration efforts at Edenville are still top of mind for us every day, while at the same time we are working hard to help ensure there is never a repeat of this disaster."

For Wood, looking out at the desert in his front yard brings memories of what once was.

"It was just pretty overwhelming," he said. "It was like a traumatic wound or something, if you want to get technical with it, because it's just like it's too much to take in all at once."