Iron County bracing for second flooding wave as river levels rise

Iron County was bracing for another round of flooding after weekend water left parts of Amasa with road closures and renewed concern that the ground had only dried out temporarily. On Wednesday, county emergency management warned that flow from Way Dam was being increased as a precaution to make room for forecast rain and snowmelt, and officials said water levels in the river corridor were expected to rise about one half inch.

The warning came as residents were still dealing with the first emergency. On April 17, severe flooding in Iron and Marquette counties made roads impassable, and the state said local resources were not enough to keep up with the response and recovery needs. Governor Gretchen Whitmer expanded a state of emergency to both counties on April 20, giving state agencies additional authority to support local officials as high water continued to linger across the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

State officials tied the flooding to a historic March snowstorm that left behind enough snowpack to feed prolonged runoff once warmer weather and rain arrived. Michigan’s State Emergency Operations Center was activated on April 14, then the emergency declaration was expanded on April 15, April 18 and again on April 20 as flooding problems spread and persisted across Michigan.

For Iron County, the risk is magnified by the sheer amount of road mileage that can be disrupted when water rises. The Iron County Road Commission says it maintains 224 MDOT highway miles and another 633 miles of primary and local roads. That network includes the kinds of routes that can quickly isolate homes, slow emergency access and delay deliveries when ditches, culverts and low crossings are overtopped.

The county’s alert instructed residents with flood damage to call 211 rather than 911 unless they were facing an emergency. That guidance underscored the difference between recovery calls and life-threatening situations as officials watched the river corridor for another surge.

Amasa was among the communities reporting flooding and road closures over the weekend, and local officials said some areas had only briefly dried out before the next round of concern arrived. With Way Dam releases increasing and more moisture in the forecast, Iron County’s latest warning signaled that the spring flood fight was not over.