LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Mich. – First, it was the snow, then a whole bunch of rain, and now some folks in Livingston County are dealing with bad flooding. Lake-front properties are starting to look like the lake is taking over.
It’s happening in Hamburg Township around Ore Lake just east of Pinckney, and some residents are on the edge.
“Our dock where you can see those white chairs, the water is usually two, three feet below the dock, so you can see it is high,” said Hamburg Township resident Bret Schnitzer.
The last time the neighborhood flooded in the winter was four years ago.
“But when there is a big melt like this, the snow, it just comes up really quickly,” Schnitzer said.
It’s impacting yards and homes.
“Most of us our homes are high enough that we don’t have water on the first floor, but we all do have crawl spaces, so the water is in our crawl spaces right now,” said Hamburg Township resident Dr. Amber Bismack. “The problem with the winter flooding is it’s going to freeze at night with the low temperatures.”
Flooding typically happens in the area in the spring and summer.
Bismack heads Residents Working Against Huron River Flooding, a group formed to minimize flooding along the Huron River and surrounding areas.
“What we are doing is we are actually gathering data on the water coming in upstream to try to see if we can find ways to hold back some of that water, so we don’t keep getting inundated with the water coming in,” Bismack said.
But for now, Bismack’s immediate concern is how high the water will go this time.
“It is supposed to peak around Thursday, Friday and start to flow out after, and we will see if that is the case,” Bismack said.