DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. – A street in Dearborn Heights was turned into a river filled with floating garbage cans Friday afternoon.
Read: List of flooded highways, ramp closures, reopenings announced by MDOT today in Metro Detroit
Residents are using kayaks to get around. They said they are concerned about sewers backing up, sending water or sewage into their basements.
It’s not the first time the area has been impacted by flooding.
Dan Murray’s home doesn’t have a basement and sits on a slab of concrete, but the water is still causing damage to his residence.
“My heat ducts are probably a quarter full of water now and so it means the water is coming,” Murray said. “As soon as it hits those heat ducts, it’s in the house, it’s flooding.”
Murray said he believes the water that is being taken off of highways and roads are being dumped into Ecorse Creek, which he said is the source of the floodwaters in the neighborhood.
View: Live weather radar: Tracking more rain in SE Michigan
The kayaks that residents were using for transportation are safer than driving through the waters or driving the wrong way on highway ramps to avoid flooding.
Video: Man rescued from atop submerged vehicle on flooded Lodge Freeway in Detroit
Eric McCutcheon exited Interstate 94 at Schaefer Road, where he found the street closed off at a railroad trestle. He took a chance on driving through. but his Dodge Caravan stalled in the water.
McCutcheon had to hoof it to get help.
“I am literally on my way to a wedding,” he said. “It didn’t seem like that deep.”
Flooding ramped up near the intersection of Van Born and Telepgraph roads. Streets immediately off of the intersection are in a floodplain and have had substantial flooding in recent years.
Jeff Marcelo grew up in the area and his parents still live there.
“It would go up and come to the curb. We’d miss school but never like this and never this often,” he said.
Across Telegraph Road, flooding stranded an Amazon truck. The driver was instructed not to get out in case there were downed wires in the water. Kayakers paddled into the water and were able to get him out.
MDOT is urging drivers to be diligent when faced with floodwaters. There are a number of unexpected hazards that rain and floods can cause.
Related: President Biden declares disaster in Michigan following June flooding