Solitude was among the reasons Michelle Ryan and her husband moved off the grid and deep into the woods of the Upper Peninsula six years ago. However, solitude – isolation even – wasn’t meant to be the same as being stranded.
The top half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula saw flooded roads and homes surrounded by water from snow melt and rain in recent weeks, but so did parts of the Upper Peninsula. There, the snowy and often remote nature of Yooper living creates extra obstacles in a recovery already under threat with more rain expected.
Ryan, 62, lives in Crystal Falls Township in Iron County, so far west in the Upper Peninsula that it shares a border with Wisconsin and uses Central Time. As she described it, she’s been largely stranded for the last week because of washed-out roads in the area. That includes the logging road she lives on, with its ownership serving as another potential obstacle for immediate repair.
A way out was made available for the about six people in the Deer Lake area, but it’s not a convenient or fast route, said Iron County Emergency Management Director Chris Peterson.
Officials are also keeping an eye on the Way Dam in the area, wary of more rain expected Monday, April 27, and Tuesday, April 28, said Peterson. The banks of the Michigamme River nearby are already full, 2 feet of snow still need to melt in the northern woods, and it keeps raining every several days. Should there be a big release of water, some areas can take it and some cannot.
Officials could end up closing M-69, with 6 feet of water atop a bridge there, Peterson said.
“It’s a chess game right now and a prayer game of, ‘Please, don’t rain an inch,’” Peterson said. “We’ll see where we are Sunday.”
Stuck in solitude amid U.P. flooding
As for the current damage, it may take until late next week before crews clear the way on washed-out routes near Ryan, said Iron County Road Commission Superintendent and Manager Bradley Toivonen.
Crews tried to send in fill to begin repair work and only half-filled their machinery because of the soft ground, he said. Still, the gravel road “blew” apart.
“We’ll just have to wait until things dry up a little more,” Toivonen said.
But fixes by his department can only do so much. The road that the commission sought to repair is on the other side of the washed-out logging road that Ryan lives on. Such roads are privately owned by timber companies, which handle the repairs but have to go through some environmental safety hurdles first, said Toivonen.
Ryan and her husband believe the main washed-out road blocking their path is multiple feet deep and perhaps 12 or 14 feet across. Ryan said it’ll have to be fixed eventually, since it’s needed for logging.
‘Beating us up’
The trouble began at least a month ago, when a late-season blizzard hit the county hard and brought 20-some inches of snow, said Toivonen. At least one area of the U.P. saw nearly 40 inches of snow.
A 3- or 4-foot drift fell across Ryan’s driveway, leaving the couple stuck for a couple days, she said. A friend lent a skid-steer, a loader of sorts, so they could make their way out.
The more recent flooding rushed in overnight Friday, April 17, into Saturday, April 18, when a rainstorm moved in.
The wet snow, combined with snow-melt and rain had left the ground inundated and the rivers swollen. There was no place for it to go. Numerous roads washed-out, collapsing down into the ground. Culverts gave out.
Some of it was in the middle of nowhere and some pushed against houses in the roughly-200-person town of Amasa, said Peterson. Some of the flooding impacted summer homes; some impacted full-time residents.
“It’s the pleasure of living next to a river – a beautiful river every year, but eventually Mother Nature wins,” Peterson said of the flooding along the river in Amasa.
Videos shared to social media showed it was no slow trickle across Iron County roadways, either. In one shared by the road commission, the rushing, foaming flow might be confused for a threatening river if not for the road guardrails protruding from the water.
“There’s a lot of more damage downstate but we’re suffering from it, too,” Toivonen said.
In the Deer Lake area, about 20 minutes away from Amasa, multiple roads washed out, by the description of the officials.
There was also hard-packed snow on another side when officials tried a different way to reach residents for emergency services, Toivonen said. Officials found a way on a logging road on the afternoon of Sunday, April 19. Then, on Monday, a neighboring county was able to fix a road on their side for access.
Ryan and her husband were well stocked for food for the week, but Ryan, who is disabled, works weekends at a grocery store in Iron River. She missed work. Her husband, who works full-time, spent the rest of the week walking on a single remaining railroad tie over a washed-out road to reach a ride to his job.
That caused extra worry when his work ran late one rainy night and, because of limited cell services, Ryan couldn’t get ahold of him.
Speaking on the afternoon of Friday, April 24, Ryan said her husband planned to check the roads to see how long it might take her to get to work the next day. It normally takes about 40 minutes. She worries the only available route could perhaps add an hour to that.
“I can’t leave them shorthanded either,” she said. “I’m a closer. They depend on me for stuff.”
People need to remember the residents in the Upper Peninsula, said Ryan. She also called for action at the state level to fix failing infrastructure.
“It’s like nobody cares,” she said of the state and general public’s approach to the U.P. “We want people to care … We’re just as important.”
On the other hand, local officials, neighbors and friends have been helpful.
A Department of Natural Resources officer rode out on a four-wheeler to the stranded residents to check on them and gave the couple her card, Ryan said. Emergency Management got in touch. A friend offered a canoe. Her boss offered to bring food to the other side of the washed-out road.
“It’s very close-knit people up here,” said Ryan. “Everybody sticks together.”
She noted, too: “We love where we are, this year is just beating us up.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Flood waters stranded this U.P. couple. The worry isn’t over yet
Reporting by Darcie Moran, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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