Check out the photos on MLive.com. Grand Rapids is under water, as are parts of Wyoming, Grandville, Comstock Park, and other low lying areas. Worst flood totals ever in most areas. The Grand is expected to hit an all time high on Sunday at 25'... nearly 6 feet higher than it's previous record set in 1906 I believe. The Grand Rapids Public Museum is on the banks of the river and is in danger of being flooded. Just an amazing amount of water... too much all at once. Sure it will help a bit with the lake levels but the devestation in our area will be felt for months to come.
Sorry to hear that
But as in Life, work or fishing it seems it's all or nothing.
On the good note
If they is a flood at least you own a boat
I told Grand Rapids several years ago that they would need to build a big lake to attract a national tournament. I didn't know they would actually do it! Sorry...
wow it looks pretty bad over there, i hope everyone reading this is high and dry. i took a peek at the pics from your link, page 4 shows a woman the drove her suv under a bridge and got flooded out. WTH lady is all i can say.
How much of a lasting effect will these floods have on water levels? Last year a lot of fishable water from years past was eliminated, will this amount of rain be enough to bring those areas back?
A buddy of mine works for a certain agency and told me when GR. has a lot of rain and flooding, the sewer system CAN NOT handle the water and sewage.
The overflow ends up being dumped into the Grand. When this flooding occurs, there are MILLIONS OF GALLONS OF RAW SEWAGE that end up in our river.
Eventually this sewage filters into Lake Michigan.
It is a shame that our society would allow this to happen
To fix the infrustructure would cost 100s of millions of dollars, so it gets swept under the rug at top levels. JFYI if you did not know
Dave
Quote from: PineLk 49 on April 19, 2013, 08:37:09 AM
A buddy of mine works for a certain agency and told me when GR. has a lot of rain and flooding, the sewer system CAN NOT handle the water and sewage.
The overflow ends up being dumped into the Grand. When this flooding occurs, there are MILLIONS OF GALLONS OF RAW SEWAGE that end up in our river.
Eventually this sewage filters into Lake Michigan.
It is a shame that our society would allow this to happen
To fix the infrustructure would cost 100s of millions of dollars, so it gets swept under the rug at top levels. JFYI if you did not know
Dave
Actually, MOST of this issue has been fixed over the years. The old saying "Sh$% happens every time it rains in Grand Rapids" is not nearly as true as it was 10 years ago. What we see now is the overflow from the storm drains mostly.
And don't let anyone pull the wool over your (our) eyes. Every town along the Grand that gets flooded leaks sewage into the river. Lowell, Ionia, Jenison, Wyoming, Grandville, etc.... you just don't hear about it because GR always had such an issue with it. Why do we build our treatment plants near major waterways anyway?
I've often wondered that same thing! This time, Grandville's sewage plant leaked the most raw sewage into the Grand. As stated, Grand Rapids' biggest problem was that the storm drains dumped straight into the river because the system was overloaded. This was well needed but once it all drains into Lake Michigan it is only suppose to raise the water level of the Lake Michigan, Grand, Muskegon, etc. about 4 inches; think of how much water that is though!
I'll take the 4" of water.
I was estimating that Muskegon was up close to a full 8 inches or so. But today, you could see the water mark where it had gone down every bit of 3 inches. Frustrating. The water is high enough that I can easily get the pontoon boat off the trailer though.