Weather

[Farmette]

Oh no, so sorry to hear this. We had storms down here, but nothing like you are experiencing. Have had that 7 inches a few years back and I'd never want to go through that again. As you indicated first concern is the well-being of others and the the job of cleaning up and rebuilding. Prayers to all of you!

[Nan_PA_6b]

Wow Keith, that's scary. Prayers for you all up there.
Nan

[imp]

Stay safe as you can.

[bower]

Thinking of you, Keith! Hoping no one is hurt.
Seven inches in seven hours is an insane amount of water...

[matereater]

Keith, glad to hear you and your family are safe. My son who spent 5 years there at MTU was showing me pics at dinner last night, I had no idea.


I ran across this video on youtube that shows some of the destruction. Some of the language is a bit coarse so be advised.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17MmTw1rruM

[guruofgardens]

WOW, Keith. That storm sounds devastating for all of your community. Prayers for a quick recovery. Please keep us informed as to how you"re doing.

Let us know how we can help.

[bower]

OMG... those roads are not going to be fixed in a day or two.
Stay where you're to, or get to higher ground if your home is flooded is all you can do. I hope you have clean water Keith... Hope you have a good stash of food in your cellar.
My oh my.

[clkeiper]

I saw this earlier Keith... and my first thought was of you. glad you are okay but i feel bad for all of you up there. this is terrible.

[rxkeith]

i spent a good part of the day reconstructing the bottom part of our driveway. a flash flood washed away a good bit of it. there are trenches on both sides of the road from 6 inches to 2 feet. its a country road, dirt and gravel with mine rock base i discovered.
a road commission guy was out taking pictures of the damage. they'll get to us eventually, but major roads will have to be taken care of first. he said we had seven inches of rain between 3am and 6am. all that water went rushing down roads taking out all the dirt along side, and eventually the base underneath the roads was gone causing the roads to buckle, collapse, and wash away.
the roads going up and down took the worst hit. we have a lot of those kind of roads.
close to 30 roads are closed. some are going to take awhile to repair. detours will have to be worked out.

there was one fatality. a twelve year old boy in houghton was sleeping downstairs when
the basement wall collapsed from water and mud. his father pulled him out, started cpr, first responders continued cpr. they had to bring him out by boat to get him to a local hospital where they established a pulse. he got airlifted to U of M hospital in ann arbor, but didn't survive. there were a few other close calls.

my family is fine. plenty of food. we have well water. the house is not in a flood path.
i am somewhat surprised we never lost power.
you all can read about it at www.mininggazette.com. they have removed restrictions, so anyone can log in.
i have never seen anything like this before in my life.

appreciate the thoughts.



keith

[bower]

So glad to hear you have all your needs and are safe!

[rxkeith]

the governor took an aerial tour of our area yesterday, and declared us a state of disaster. that gets us help from the national guard to help repair roads.
to my surprise i learned today that every major roadway in the area has been reopened.
that doesn't mean they are fixed. they have been patched by road crews so traffic can go through. some areas are one lane only, but a lot has been accomplished in 48 hours.
m26 in the small town of hubble had four washouts. one of my techs that lives there said that there was no road after the flash flood. cars had been swallowed by craters. the road is now open to local traffic.
the fear sunday was that another storm was coming. that storm missed us, but dumped six inches of rain on marquette.

i learned that no one here has flood insurance. even if you want it, you can't get here because the area is not in a flood plain. the feds will not allow insurance companies to sell flood insurance. so, what are people to do that have had major damage or lost their house to flooding? are they just sol?

one thing i will say about our area. in times of need, people will step up, and help out in any way they can. we have volunteer fire departments. we have volunteer first responders. neighbors help each other out. if you are a stranger in need, someones gonna help you. the community is coming out to help clean up hubble. there are some real salt of the earth people here that i am privileged to know.

today was sunny, and 75, just like the song.



keith

[Nan_PA_6b]

We drove home in flood conditions tonight. Saw something I'd never seen before: an emergency vehicle hauling a boat for water rescue.

Nan

[AlittleSalt]

Nan, I am thinking you got home safe. Flooding is a dangerous thing.

We just missed out on yesterday's rain. It looked like it rained pretty good in town about 11 miles away. At DFW airport, they are not in a drought, but live around 50 or so miles south of there. At our house, it rained twice in early May and hasn't rained here since - other than a very light sprinkle last night. The raindrops were tiny, but they felt good. It wasn't enough to settle the dust.

[Nan_PA_6b]

We got home sort of safely. A manhole cover popped off and tore off our bumper & damaged our undercarriage, but the car was driveable. We were turned away at one street due to flooding, and drove through some deep swift water at times, but we're safe. Buildings are collapsing and people are being rescued by boat.

I wish there was a way to redistribute the world's water. It's destroying our roads and homes and cars here. And in the UP of MI it's even worse, as RXKeith has been writing.

I'll ask God to send some water your way.


Nan

[AlittleSalt]

Nan, I'm glad to read that you are home safely. The vehicle can be fixed - I hope.