Isabella County is still recovering from last year’s record floods and Tuesday’s downpour and local flooding brought back memories as the damaged roads are still being repaired.
“The Road Commission and 911 get reports from citizens about water over the road,” says Isabella County Emergency Manager Mark Griffis, “That is one of our high areas today they got 5.64 inches of rain.”
The corner of Vandecar and River Roads was the hardest hit spot in this storm. Water circling the culvert, overwhelming it and washing away the side of the road, creating a waterfall to the other side. A sight well known to those in the county.
“Obviously now we’re still repairing roads from last year which I understand are supposed to be back on track by the end of November-ish,” says Griffis.
While local flooding will happen with downpours like Tuesday morning, the real damage comes from when the ground gets over saturated and all the excess water overflows the Chippewa River.
“Five inches in one spot is almost seven but we didn’t get it all in one swoop with multiple days beforehand of rain to wet and everything,” says Griffis, “It was already filled up so in that case I think we were very lucky and very fortunate.”
All summer they have been looking for rain in Isabella County and of course it all came at once.
“The second rain starts I kind of start to think I don’t wanted to get back to our record of 2017,” says Griffis, “But we needed the rain for sure for the farmers right now, we know that, we just like it in moderation.”
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