Nine months after devastating flooding, Central Michigan residents are left abandoned
It has now been nearly nine months since the breaching of the Sanford, Smallwood, and Edenville dams and subsequent dike failures along the Tittabawassee River in Central Michigan. Boyce Hydro LLC was the private owner of these dams and was responsible for the state of disrepair that led to their breaching in May.
State authorities were intimately aware of the decaying and dangerous state of the dam, as shown through decades of safety violations and the revocation of Boyce’s electric production license by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2018. Even so, they chose to do nothing to prevent a disaster. The WSWS has published extensive reports detailing the events of the flooding, its effects, and its aftermath.
9 & 10 News We’re just doing the best that we can to protect the property that we have.
December 14, 2020
A historic rain event in May led to the failure of the Edenville and Sanford Dams, creating a 500-year flood in Gladwin and Midland counties.
Since then, Four Lakes Task Force created a Special Assessment District to determine costs to repair the dams and refill the lakes.
However, some homeowners do not agree with the plan.
“Sanford Lake is taxed with an unbelievable burden compared to the other lakes,” says Sue Brown who lives on Sanford Lake.
Brown says her home was flooded with four feet of water when the dams broke in May.