Detroit Area Flooding - 08/11/2014

[Scottathew]

WJBK is reporting that the embankment of I-75 in Hazel Park near Nine Mile has collapsed. They had pictures showing exposed underground utilities as well as a service drive that was sagging down toward the freeway.



I think we'll understand the full scope of things tomorrow morning, but I've seen significant flooding reports from many different areas online, especially some of the inner-ring suburbs.

I've got several friends in Huntington Woods that are measuring the water in the basement at 3-4 feet.

My parents in Clawson reported 6-8 inches of water in their basement. My parents also reported that water from higher ground areas was actually coming up out of the sewers into their streets. Also in Clawson, I'm seeing a lot of pictures of folks with water up to their houses.

I have several friends that work in Detroit and live in Troy and Lake Orion. They reported it took five hours to get home.

http://www.freep.com/article/2014081...ing-heavy-rain

[Danny]

This was truly a monsoon-like heavy rainfall. Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties received up to 4 to 6 inches of rainfall in 6 hours. Seventy-seven percent of roads, local streets and freeways and viaducts are turned into lakes and rivers in minutes. many basements flooded, people are trapped in their cars. Transit buses rerouted. People are trapped in their whole neighborhoods and ghetto-hoods. It's like biblical flood out there.

The super moon effected the Earth's oceanic tides, causing our atmosphere to gain more juice and steam to pump more colder condense clouds, increasing the low pressure system and collecting more gulf moisture. Add the trough of low pressure from northwest and approaching cold front and you will see a monster of the cloudburst. Looks like everyone is struck until will clear out the flooding and letting waters recede.

[Mikeg]

5.1 inches of rain today here in Shelby Twp. Two-thirds of that fell between 6 and 9 PM.

[DTWflyer]

That is by far the most flooding this area has seen in the past 50-100 years, at least in times since the development of most suburban areas. The area hardest hit were the inner-ring suburbs and the City of Detroit.

The areas hardest hit where the typical low-lying areas of the Red Run, Rouge, and Escorse River watersheds - primarily east of Telegraph and south of 14 Mile.

A majority of Royal Oak, Clawson, Huntington Woods, Hazel Park, Madison Heights and Warren was underwater.
In Royal Oak, all of the underpasses under the railroad where underwater -the only roads to cross where at the at-grade crossings in downtown at Lincoln or Main, or up at 14 Mile Rd. I've got several friends that live south of 12 Mile and every single one has about a foot of water in their basement.

It took me 2.5 hours to go from Dearborn to Southfield, leaving at 7:30pm. Southfield Fwy was closed, Telegraph was closed. Bushwacked my way around, but made so many numerous u-turns due to flooded roads.

[internet_pseudopod]

Other than the fact that I had 2-3 feet of water in my basement this was one of the times I was glad to live in the city. There is more than one way to get somewhere. I went out to pick up some toilet paper around 8:30 since my freshly purchased 1 million roll package of toilet paper from Costco was almost certainly submerged. I found out the news wasn't joking. Cops were everywhere, freeways blocked off, people pulled over to the side of the road with stalled vehicles and a traffic jam on Woodward that stretched from Milwaukee to at least Davison. It was crazy!

The funny thing about this storm is that even when it was raining hard, it didn't seem like it was raining that hard. I remember one of the 2004 storms mentioned here and that was probably the hardest rain I have ever been in in my life. I was driving down 75, windshield wipers were useless and I couldn't see well enough to pull over. Every time I think about that drive I know I am lucky to be alive. I drove in this and the two don't even compare.

The question that came to my mind mind while driving was "Would we have been able to weather this storm better if our infrastructure wasn't so aged and sprawled out?"

[mam2009]

About 20 inches in my basement in the Jefferson-Chalmers area. A neighbor told me the water in his basement was above his waste a couple streets over. During a drive around the neighborhood, I saw a Crown Victoria floating in the street.

[DTWflyer]

I'd put more blame on the actions that occurred in the 1920s-1960s in terms of burying and building over existing, natural drainages such as Red Run through Berkley, Royal Oak, and Madison Heights.

I would like to believe that by todays standard some of those areas would have been deemed wetlands and not been built on as such 60-70 years ago. The other issue is the enormous cost of retrofitting Combined Sewer Overflows in inner ring cities with a seperate storm water system.

The Red Run drainage system was notorious for flooding in the 1990s. Improvements to the Red Run and Twelve Town Drainage systems improved that alot, but not much that could hand the 4-6" we received today in such a short period of time.

Normally we talk about 1-1.5 inches in 24 hours as a significant rainfall.

[FormerDetroiter]

Michigan sure has had it's share of unusual weather this year....

[Danny]

If this system was in the winter climate in Tri-County Area, we will receive about 5 feet of snow.

[Danny]

Hurricane Katrina hits us!

[Scottathew]

I'd put more blame on the actions that occurred in the 1920s-1960s in terms of burying and building over existing, natural drainages such as Red Run through Berkley, Royal Oak, and Madison Heights.

Some people won't like hearing this, but some of the outer-ring suburbs like Rochester Hills and Troy handled this much better.

Because density is much lower and many natural features are still above ground, Rochester Hills has lots of places to store water. Newer subdivisions, like my mid 1970's sub at John R and Auburn were required to have large water retention basins.

I drove around as the storm wrapped up to find that many of the basins were near capacity. There was very little street flooding in the three miles I drove on Hamlin, John R, and Auburn.

The only storm issue we had in recent history is when the dam at the golf course breached, which flooded the low-lying areas of the subdivision several years ago.

[DTWflyer]

Some of it is exactly that - lower density, more greenspace/unpaved surfaces, better drainage systems.

Another is that generally some of those areas got less rain than Wayne and SE Oakland County.

The other is topography - Troy, Rochester Hills, and Auburn Hills is generally higher elevation, and slopes to the south and east.

Royal Oak, Clawson, Berkley, and Warren all used to be swampy wetlands, are very flat, have poor drainage, and have a history of urban flooding.

This case is so rare because it covered such a large and vast area. It is rare that all major drainage basins got hit in this and all major urban freeways had major flooding.

[Scottathew]

Here's a series of pictures by Joe Gall Photography [[camerajesus.com) that are on Facebook:

[Bigb23]

I remember back in the early 2000's that my property that was flood proof, had my driveway under water, and my street a class 5 rapids. Not to mention the new lake in my backyard.

[Lowell]

Hines Drive is closed! OMG! :-o

[Scottathew]

Hines Drive is closed! OMG! :-o

LOL!

But seriously, nearly every Detroit freeway is also closed. Some have soil erosion damage. Many cars are still submerged.

It's quite literally a disaster out there. So much property damage and infrastructure damage.

[Gistok]

Here in St. Clair Shores the roads area all clear. I went out last night at 10PM and didn't notice anything unusual [[no roadway flooding)... but apparently all points west of us [[Warren, Sterling Heights, Fraser), were heavily flooded.

[mtburb]

My backyard in Wyandotte did flood in a way that it never did in years! Also, I was forced to ration all water in my house as the sewer backup worsened.

Here's another picture-Fort Street and Cicotte in Lincoln Park.


Someone in the comments section reported that it took three hours to get from southwest Detroit to Grosse Ile.

[Scottathew]

The Warren Tech Center is closed today.

[Hypestyles]

... hope everyone makes it out safely. So what are flood insurance rates like in Michigan?

[Lowell]

Just heard that the State Police have divers at the 75-696 interchange checking for victims. Water appears to be over ten feet deep.

Portrait of Detroit today:

[Hermod]

The area from six mile to fourteen mile was once an impassible swamp with a few areas of higher ground like Royal Oak. It was so bad that early settlers [[from New York) in Oakland and Macomb bypassed the area and went up the Clinton River valley to found the settlements like Utica, Rochester, and Troy. The hills Oakland County [[like in Rochester) were the foot of the glacier in the last Ice Age and formed all of the gravel which was quarried out of the area and hauled down to Warren to fill in the swamp.

[Lowell]

Time to dig out some paintings I created in the eighties when expressway flooding was more frequent.

[Maof]

Some people won't like hearing this, but some of the outer-ring suburbs like Rochester Hills and Troy handled this much better.

Because density is much lower and many natural features are still above ground, Rochester Hills has lots of places to store water. Newer subdivisions, like my mid 1970's sub at John R and Auburn were required to have large water retention basins.

I drove around as the storm wrapped up to find that many of the basins were near capacity. There was very little street flooding in the three miles I drove on Hamlin, John R, and Auburn.

The only storm issue we had in recent history is when the dam at the golf course breached, which flooded the low-lying areas of the subdivision several years ago.

so taking m-59 to OU today should be fine?

[nain rouge]

I lost my trusty '99 Sable to a flood on 696 last year during a similar torrential downpour. I remember wondering back then how wise it was long-term to build all of these depressed freeways. Of course, everyone just laughed and told me I was an idiot for driving into flood water. But when cars are barreling down at you on the freeway at 80 MPH, it's not exactly easy to "just turn around", especially if the flooding is around a bend.