Drier weather conditions and intensive efforts at the flood-threatened Cheboygan Lock and Dam have the situation stabilizing and improving. But there’s a long way to go, and billions of gallons of snowmelt and rainfall-swelled water levels to pass, before the threat is lifted, state police officials said Thursday, April 23.
Water levels on Thursday morning were 8.28 inches from the top of the dam, a reduction of about an eighth of an inch from the day before. State police officials said 9.12 inches of water must recede before the Cheboygan lock and dam emergency action plan is deactivated − and crews are now focused on water that has yet to arrive.
“Getting that water out through the Cheboygan dam is the only way to bring needed relief to people whose homes are flooded or blocked by washed-out roads across the watershed,” state police officials said in a release. “Workers have faced an unprecedented amount of water, and the event is far from over.”
Nearby Black Lake has a legal summer elevation of 612.2 feet above sea level, and it is currently 5 feet higher than that level. Mullett Lake is 3 feet higher than its target summer level of 593.1 feet above sea level. Black Lake normally has a surface area of 10,100 acres; Mullett Lake, 16,630 acres. The magnitude of the water the two lakes hold upriver from the Cheboygan lock and dam underscores the task ahead, state police officials said.
“Over the next few weeks, crews must usher an extra 32 billion gallons of water that is being stored in the lakes through the dam, in addition to the 1 billion gallons that move through the dam on a typical April day,” officials said. “Passing that water through Cheboygan dam is not a simple, 4- to 5-day operation.”
Continued successful water passage depends on the various shapes and slopes of river sections, the capabilities of upriver and similarly threatened Alverno dam; preventing logs, branches and debris from impeding water flows; the speed of the flow; water in the river’s floodplain; and not receiving new water from rain; state police officials said.
The U.S. Coast Guard has prohibited boating on the Cheboygan River south of the dam (downstream) until May 8, as well as on the Black River and the Indian River. Boating remains allowable on connected lakes, but boaters are urged to use extreme caution and follow local emergency manager directives.
Area residents can get current information via the Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook Page or the Facebook page of the Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division.
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 9 more inches of water must recede before Cheboygan Dam emergency lifts
Reporting by Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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