In 2021, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer blamed climate change for Detroit area flooding that closed down highways for days, then spent about $66 million to upgrade highway pumping stations.
Those same highways were under water again on Friday after about 2 to 3 inches of rain fell on the Motor City the day prior.
Several highway ramps for I-94 and I-696 remained closed on Friday, forcing residents to find other routes and resulting in “numerous vehicles stuck in floodwaters and some being towed out,” WJBK reports.
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“Off of the freeways, numerous surface streets are also flooded. Areas with high water included 12 Mile and Hoover in Warren, Northwestern Highway at 14 Mile in West Bloomfield, and multiple streets in St. Clair Shores, just to name a few,” according to the television station.
“The flooding on Hoover and Warren was cleared after being blocked for hours. At one point, the floodwaters reached about 3 feet high.”
The Southfield Freeway, as well as parts of Hayes Road, Clinton River Road, Utica Road, Millar Road, Garfield Road and others are also closed until further notice, with additional rain expected on Friday as temperatures move toward 90 degrees on Saturday.
It’s a familiar situation for many in the Detroit area, where I-94 was shut down for several days in June 2021 when at least 28 of the area’s 140 freeway pump stations did not have power and were overwhelmed by 6.5 inches of rain over a 12-hour period, according to The Detroit News.
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The flooding produced what WSMH described as a “gross stew of water and sewage that backed up into basements” as officials scrambled to install temporary generators for the pump stations to provide relief.
The situation followed similar issues in August 2014, and Whitmer vowed to take action.
“This is climate change, this is a moment and a need for us to help one another but also do the hard work of protecting ourselves going forward,” she told reporters.
In February 2022, Whitmer proposed spending $66 million to install generator backups at each of the state’s 164 highway pumping stations, which was approved as part of budget for fiscal year 2023.
“Last summer, we saw the unsurprising result of what happens when decades of disinvestment in water infrastructure meets historic floods and storms,” Whitmer said in statement cited by The News when she announced the planned spending. “State government has to step up to protect people’s homes, and we must invest in critical infrastructure to keep people’s basements dry, highways open, and power on.”
Two years after those investments, it’s deja-vu all over again.
“It looked like a normal day, like I’m going to work, and then the car in front of me, I seen wings like an eagle, but it was water,” Chris Smith, who got stuck in Warren, told WJBK.
“I was trying to drive as slow as I can so the water wouldn’t get in my car but it was too high,” he said. “I hope I got a car still. That’s the plan, see if it dries off.”
“It’s almost to the bottom of the 11 Mile overpass; a bunch of gunk in the water, almost up to the signs. It’s over the freeway walls,” WWJ’s Mike Campbell reported on Friday.
Numerous residents dealing with flooded basements and the health risks that comes with it, meanwhile, are left to fend for themselves.
“I got up at two in the morning and the thing’s flooded right to the door and it’s up to the second step,” Kowalski told WWJ. “I’m 88 years old. What am I gonna do?”