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My whole family has grown up here,” said shoreline resident, Rita Alton. The Village hopes to eventually receive some financial help from the U.S. The home is one of many on both sides of Lake Michigan being threatened by rapidly eroding shoreline. “The waves wouldn’t be able to get all the way to the bottom of those big dunes if the Lake Michigan levels weren’t at these long-term highs," Andy Dixon, a NWS hydrologist in Grand Rapids, told Michigan Live. Carl lives next door to the now-abandoned house that used to have a sunroom and a back deck. "Now the lake level is so high, it's starting to eat underneath, and everything is falling over," Carl said.
While workers prepare for demolition, the lake keeps smashing against the shore below. A bulldozer places rocks along the shoreline in an attempt to stop significant Lake Michigan erosion threatening properties near Maranatha Drive in Norton Shores, Michigan, on Wednesday, October 23, 2019. The disappearing property and houses on the verge of falling into the lake have not gone unnoticed by village/town officials.
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The question to use public funds to tear the home down was put before the Park Township Board of Trustees at an emergency meeting Thursday, according to WOOD TV8. Emergency management officials were surprised the Lakeshore Drive home made it through Thursday evening, Nov. 21, when wind gusts reached peak speeds of 44 mph in Holland. “We’re gonna tear it down today so it doesn’t fall in tonight,” said Carl Perrin, owner of Middleville construction firm Perrin Marine. "The lake has taken 70-pound anchors — ripped them right out of the shoreline. It's broken chains. It's broken ropes," demolition contractor Matt Lucansky told WITI. The Oct. 16 storm ate away up to 30 feet of dune along parts of the shore, the NWS said.
The soil underneath the house is constantly shifting and could give way, similar to how avalanches on mountains can be set off by a small stimulus that triggers a chain reaction. DeGroot said a timeline on possible emergency measures by the village was tough to speculate on, but the hope is to do something "as soon as we can." DeGroot added homeowners in the area have received authorization from the DNR to do emergency repairs on their own.
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Now, people with beachfront property are in a battle to save their homes. In late October, the agency announced that it would begin expediting permits for shoreline protection work, especially for properties in most immediate danger or that pose a public safety threat. Since this policy change, about 65 percent of permits are now processed within five days, according to Assendelft, down from the standard 60 to 90 days.
It’s a fact that has dominated the headlines recently – including stories of people’s houses falling into the Great Lakes. But for those living in landlocked areas of the state, you might not realize that those coastal problems affect you too. Regardless, Bonstell emphasized homeowners are responsible for ensuring their homes don’t fall in and are ultimately on the hook for demolition and cleanup costs.
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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. In the meantime, Szabelski says there are options homeowners have right now. "But we're trying to do something about it. I think we can do it. I'm worried about people who own property on the lake who probably can't afford it." Carthage College is just south of where the home was demolished in November. However, waves pound the tons of rocks they recently installed a few months ago.
He estimates that his company dropped 6,000 tons of rock in 2019 all up and down Lake Michigan’s east coast, with five or six projects in Muskegon County. The City of Racine plans to spend $1.5 million to build five new single-family houses on vacant lots in diverse city neighborhoods. The ultimate buyer, who declined to speak with The Journal Times on the record, fits that demographic.
Racine County previously donated concrete for homeowners hoping to protect the bluff from further erosion. That funding could only be used to protect public property/services, not homes or private buildings. The Village of Mount Pleasant continues to mull over how to deal with bluff erosion impacting homes in its Lake Park neighborhood. A desperate effort by homeowners is now underway to move their houses away from the approaching cliffs or build stone barriers to retain the shifting sands below. "Nobody has seen how quick and how much property has been lost in such a short amount of time with this type of erosion," he said. Then there’s the infrastructure that’s located along the state’s shoreline, including infrastructure that affects the state’s drinking water.
The last two years were the wettest in nearly a century for the Great Lakes, virtually ensuring another season of unusually high water levels that could turn dream homes into nightmares. Across the Great Lakes, the inundation has been accompanied by more frequent and intense storms that have stripped away the sandy base of beachfront homes. Rita Alton lives in Manistee and her nearly 70-year old home is perched a few feet from disaster. VILLAGE OF SOMERS — More homes are at risk of falling into Lake Michigan due to rapid erosion along the shoreline.
As Lake Michigan water levels remain at a near-record high, more and more shoreline is being eaten away every day. This house in Park Township, Michigan, is in danger of falling off the cliff. "To aid in landowner’s abilities to protect their properties, the Department has developed a streamlined process intended for emergency erosion control along coastal shorelines," Szabelski said. Permits, finances, and the capricious weather of a West Michigan winter all contribute to a challenging landscape for homeowners seeking to forestall the effects of erosion on their lakeside properties.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. But Dietz, the home mover, said most people who have reached out to his company don’t end up using his services. Mitigating work might include installing stone riprap or a rock revetment, seawalls of steel or concrete, moving a house back or demolishing it altogether. Just over half of those permits were for properties along Lake Michigan. “f you don’t start that, it can get to the point where it’s too late, and there’s no one to assist you,” Bonstell said.
And get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox. When Tish Gancer looks out at the waters of Lake Michigan, she sees the final resting place of her house. Built by her grandfather, most of the lakefront cottage fell off a cliff on New Year's Eve, leaving only a bit of foundation.
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