Mid-Michigan Residents Tasked With Cleanup After Historic Flooding

MIDLAND (WWJ) - The flood waters have receded but the damage has been done throughout mid-Michigan, where residents are trying to pick up the waterlogged pieces of their lives.

Piles of ruined clothing, soggy furniture and other household items are piled up along the curb in Midland, waiting to be hauled away after last weekend's storms left behind flood waters of historic proportions.

Jeffery Knoll, formerly of Detroit, had just moved to Midland a week before the flood.

"They was so deep that the mailboxes was covered and the stop signs, and the river bank right here was up to the bridge and everything," Knoll told WWJ's Charlie Langton. "We couldn't come out. They had rescue boats come in to save people from here all the way down to where we're staying at now."

Five to eight inches of rain fell within a short period of time Friday, washing out roads and bridges. Weekend rainfall totals measure around 12 inches. Officials called it the state's worst flood in three decades in declaring a state of emergency for Isabella and Midland counties.

"I was just like man, what are we going to do and where are we going to go," said Knoll. "It was kind of scary because I didn't know if it was going to come in the house or not, and we don't have a basement, because a lot of people got flooded out."

Many homes, yards and homes were under knee-deep water at the height of the flood. Flooding had streets and yards under water until just recently.

"I'm happy that it receded when it did and at the time it did and people didn't lose as much," said Knoll. "But, everybody is safe and everybody's cool."