Dams Fail as Tittabawassee River Levels Exceed 1986 Record

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MIDLAND, Mich. — The Edenville Dam in Gladwin County failed at about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday evening, after heavy rains and flash flooding throughout the state. A little over an hour later, at 6:50 p.m., Sanford Dam also failed causing public closures and evacuations for thousands of Midland County residents.

With both, Sanford and Edenville Dams, being breached–which means they could be cracked, broken or ruptured–Midland County has evacuated over 10,000 residents that are in high-risk areas. According to the City of Midland’s website, residents should “seek higher ground” as far east and west of the Tittabawassee River as possible, as the National Weather Service projected the river to crest at 38 feet today. That is about five feet over the current record-setting flood in 1986, which crested at 33.89 feet and was deemed “the worst natural disaster in the state’s modern history.”


The Midland County Emergency Operations Center is still receiving conflicting reports on the status of the Sanford Dam.

“We are trying to get confirmation about functionality,” a senior official inside the County’s emergency operations center told the City Paper. “Much erosion, still a major breach and spillage over the top. If it was a car in a crash – borderline for being totaled or fixed.”

Midland County officials are strongly advising that evacuated residents refrain from returning to their homes at this time, citing “major danger.”


According to the Midland County Hazard Mitigation Plan (MCHMP) from Nov. 2018, the most vulnerable jurisdictions for dam failure are as follows, ranking highest to lowest: Edenville Township, Jerome Township, Village of Sanford, Lincoln Township, Homer Township, City of Midland, Midland Township, and Ingersoll Township.

MCHMP also defines dam failure as “the collapse or failure of an impoundment resulting in downstream flooding.” It states that, “Dam failures can result in loss of life and extensive property or natural resource damage for miles downstream from the dam. Failure of a dam does not only occur during flood events, which may cause overtopping of a dam. Failure can also result from poor operation, lack of maintenance and repair, and vandalism. Such failures can be catastrophic because they occur unexpectedly, with no time for evacuation.”

In a 2017 Detroit Free Press article by Keith Matheny, it states, “The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality oversees 88 potential high-hazard damns in the state, and all but six of them are approaching or past 50 years old, the average engineered life span for a dam. Overall, more than 90 percent of Michigan’s nearly 2,600 dams will reach or exceed their design life by 2020, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) stated in a 2009 report.”

All four of the dams were built in 1924, for the purpose of water power development to generate electricity—Secord (being farthest north), Smallwood, Edenville and Sanford (being farthest south)—and are based along the Tittabawassee River. They are considered high hazard because of the “potential impact a failure would have downstream,” states the MCHMP.

Bridgette Gransden, Midland County Administrator with the Midland County Emergency Operations Center, said, “It is important to remember that these dams are nearing 100 years old in some instances. Aside from that this was just more water than could be handled by the dikes and retention ponds. The county and city have both exercised and planned for emergencies such as this and although a real event never happens exactly like an exercise, all lessons learned can be applied.”


Midland County Emergency Operations Center – Press Conference – Tittabawassee River Flood. A.J. Hoffman for the City Paper.


During a press conference held at the Midland Law Enforcement Center on Tuesday evening, Midland County Board of Commissioners Chairman, Mark Bone, and City Manager, C. Bradley Kaye, addressed the situation.

Mr. Bone stated, “As you know last night [Monday], the County began to implement public safety emergency management protocols in response to an imminent dam failure in Edenville. Local fire and law enforcement have been notifying residents to evacuate. Since then, we have been monitoring the river and situations, including levels and dam conditions, at Smallwood, Secord, Edenville and Sanford Dams. We established shelters and continued to issue statements through the media and social media.”

Shelters have been set up at Bullock Creek High School, Coleman Highschool, Midland High School, North Midland Family Center and West Midland Family Center. As more shelters are established, the locations will be posted to the City of Midland, Michigan-Municipal Government Facebook page, along with evacuation areas and updated information.

“Please follow directions from law enforcement and public safety to evacuate when you are directed to so that we may continue to keep as many people as safe as possible. We will continue to keep you updated,” concluded Mr. Bone.

“Both the city and the county have declared [state of] emergencies,” explained Mr. Kaye. “That has been done, predominately, because of course, of the response that is necessary. Those have both been done this afternoon.”

“Within the city, we are looking at an evacuation plan that covers about a quarter of the city’s population, which is approximately 10,000 people. This is a massive effort. It has been well underway since earlier this afternoon. It has been predicated by the failures, and potential failures of the dam. If these dams do fail, in the way that they are predicted to, we are looking at flood heights that are approximately 4.5 to 5 feet higher than the flood of 1986 that we had, which is the highest ever in the city of Midland. The consequence of living in a river valley is that we have to deal with river floods at times, this however would be unprecedented. Whereas the flood from 1986 was considered a 100-year flood, what we are looking at is an event that is equivalent to a 500-year flood, which is extremely rare, extremely catastrophic and very dangerous.”

When asked about the potential impacts on the community, Ms. Gransden replied, “Damage to infrastructure like roads and bridges, residences, and businesses. We cannot predict or estimate recovery until we have had an opportunity to do damage assessment.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for Midland County on Tuesday evening and urged residents to evacuate their homes as directed and still emphasized the importance of practicing social distancing “to the best of our abilities” during these times.

“In the next 12 to 15 hours, downtown Midland could be under approximately 9 feet of water,” Ms. Whitmer said. “We are anticipating a historic high-water level. This is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in Midland County,” she continued. If you have a family member or loved one in another part of the state, go there now.”

She concluded, “To go through this in the midst of a global pandemic is almost unthinkable, but we are here, and to the best of our ability, we are going to navigate this together.”

Michael Westendorf and A.J. Hoffman contributed reporting.

1 thought on “Dams Fail as Tittabawassee River Levels Exceed 1986 Record

  1. Boyce had it drained down and The Judge and the 4 lakes task force ordered him to fill it,,, what does anyone expect to happen,,

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