Table of Content
- MichMash: How houses falling into the Great Lakes impacts all of Michigan
- Erosion will continue to be a problem
- Update: Victim's Name Released in Wexford County Sheriff's Office Death Investigation
- 'Every day we worry:' Homes on shoreline in Somers in jeopardy of falling into Lake Michigan
- 10 News Top Stories
- Watch Now: Related Video
- Oceana Co. Home Starts Falling into Lake Michigan
More homes are at risk of falling into Lake Michigan due to rapid erosion along the shoreline. “Coming out of my mouth, I imagine it’s going to sound a bit prejudiced, but I think the only solution is picking up a house and moving it from the lakeshore,” he said. Shortly before midnight on Dec. 31, a family cottage toppled from a bluff in White River Township, west of downtown Montague. At the time that it fell, homeowner Patricia “Tish” Gancer had been attempting to install a rock revetment, and to stabilize the sandy bluff, even as portions of her home leaned over the edge.
“When I see a house fall into the lake, I need to take that as a symptom of what is happening along the entire coastline of Michigan,” she said. This is a problem that doesn’t just impact people on the shoreline, it impacts everyone, Gardner said. But Bonstell said he isn’t aware of another Michigan home so close to toppling as Wright’s.
MichMash: How houses falling into the Great Lakes impacts all of Michigan
Army Corps of Engineers, which issues semi-annual lake level forecasts, has predicted that Lake Michigan may rise farther still in 2020. The state permitting process, facilitated through Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy , is also more involved for homes in designated critical dune or high erosion areas. “If their house is within 75 feet of the bluff and the bluff is eroding, they need to be thinking about what they’re going to do, as far as mitigation, if they want to try and move their house,” Warner said. Warner said that he tries to help connect Muskegon-area homeowners with resources and neighbors.
He’s currently seeking an estimate of how much it will cost to protect the bluff and the house on it. In addition to listings of a lakeside ranch home that needs some safety measures, she started listing the property as vacant land that just so happens to have a house on it. Other potential buyers figured there would need to be another massive storm like the one in early 2020 to decimate the bluff, but that’s not necessarily the case.
Erosion will continue to be a problem
VILLAGE & TOWN OF SOMERS -- For many people living in the Midwest, having a house on the lake is a dream. But one property in the Village & Town of Somersis too close to the water for comfort. It’s just one of the many lakeshore homes disappearing from all the erosion.
Wright and his family enjoyed the lakeshore residence as a vacation home and tried to escape there as often as they could, he said. Furniture and belongings have been moved from the home, and utility connections were severed. As late as Friday morning, emergency officials still weren’t sure if the homeowner was going to tear the home down, Bonstell said. HOLLAND, MI -- A West Michigan shoreline home threatening at any moment to plummet more than 50 feet into Lake Michigan is being demolished Friday. Many homeowners have applied for permits to build seawalls and other protective structures. "Every day we worry about the east storms coming," said Darrel Carl, who owns a home on the lakefront.
Update: Victim's Name Released in Wexford County Sheriff's Office Death Investigation
After months of unsuccessful pitches to people who wanted a lakefront home without the hassle of living on a cliff, Vetter changed tactics. She got the OK from the owners — who had been in Arizona when the 2020 storm hit and have since chosen to not move back to Wisconsin — and added a new listing. Army Corps of Engineers records, all five Great Lakes have seen rises in water levels over the past decade above the 100-year average. The erosion has been blamed on climate change, the natural course of Mother Nature, constantly changing water levels and myriad other causes. It continues to be a problem, and experts expect the erosion to quicken in the near future.
After the major storms of the fall, there’s been a spike in inquiries from homeowners seeking help from county agencies. But the preservation and remediation projects that have been most successful are those that began in late summer, said Bonstell. The documentation process required for acquiring permits can drag on, depending on the size, resources, and chain of authority of a city or town. That was the case in November, when a house that was hanging off the edge of a 50-foot bluff near Holland was demolished following an emergency order. Two other Ottawa County properties, deemed uninhabitable by their local buildings inspectors, are under mandated remediation, and their residents have been forced to live elsewhere in the meantime, said Bonstell. Shoreline erosion along the Lake Michigan and Huron coasts has been dramatic this fall.
A recent study of the issue found that rising water comes with a big price tag. More than 40 roads are affected by high water - with an initial estimate of $5 million in immediate repairs and $100 million to make permanent fixes. Gardner said that the lake levels went up last year, and are predicted to keep on rising. “It is 100 percent the homeowners responsibility to take care of that property and make sure it doesn’t get to the point where it’s subsiding over the edge,” he said. Across the lake in Somer, Wisconsin, a home has dangled on a cliff edge for months.
The lake's high water levels have been caused by above average rainfall the past few years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects the lake to remain high over the next six months, Interlochen Public Radio reported. Up and down the lakeshore, municipal agencies are encouraging residents to begin work. In Ottawa County, emergency services director Nick Bonstell said his office has been actively monitoring erosion levels since July. In August, it began doing regular flight assessments of the lakeshore, taking photos of every parcel along the coast to map the erosion levels.
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 home Cotter and his wife, Mary Carole, recently built in Ferrysburg, on the lake's eastern shore, is also threatened by the erosion. Storm-driven waves have washed away 20 to 30 feet of dunes in some places. As the wind blasts and the waves roll, the abandoned house continues to linger above the water. Over the past few days, one room of the house has been claimed by the lake. “It’s not a resort, it’s just me, it’s just a family cottage.” she said. She's heartbroken to lose the place that held so many family memories.
In places, high waves atop near record high Great Lakes water levels have eroded dozens of feet of dune. “It’s frightening how much erosion is happening and how quickly it’s happening,” Tom Cotter told Michigan Live last week. Given that, experts warn that homeowners need to think long-term to address not just the situation they see in front of them, but within the pattern of water-level cycles. Dietz encouraged anyone with less than 100 feet to the bluff to be “realistic and pragmatic," and to plan, quickly, especially if they’ve lost significant lakefront over the lifetime of their home.
“If you’re concerned with your house going in, you need to start that process as soon as possible,” Warner said. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Cupp says this summer he’s watched his property get smaller and smaller.
No comments:
Post a Comment