More UP danger...

“That sucks!

8o”

“Oh yeah, I've been hearing stories all week about this. I heard they got 4" of rain in a few days.

go to www.pasty.com and look at the daily pic today. crazy flood waters there.”

“Another story:

http://www.miningjournal.net/”

“Thank goodness my daughter lives on high ground, though my mother-in-law lives in the flats .. having my wife call her mom, pronto. I don't think she's close enough to the river on the north side of town to be problem, though.”

“My supervisor is from Eagle River, her mom still lives there. She said it was the highest she's ever seen the river in the 60 years she's lived up there.

Hope all is well with your mom-in-law, Pekka. I'm sure if it wasn't you would have heard by now.”

“Well, it's the Dead River, which is the one closest to our house in Marquette (housing mother-in-law and step-daughter at the moment). Wright Street, which is the southern border of the evacuation, is about six blocks north of the house, but it's all pretty flat in between (NMU's Superior Dome is in between Wright Street and our house).

I used to live in a cabin right down at the top of the Dead River Basin a couple blocks north of Wright Street. If things go bad, that spot is a gonner. Which is too bad, because it is just below an oxbow where I could paddle and watch herons and otters and forget I was within a quarter mile of town.

I have good friends who live out CR 553 north of the Dead River, so I guess they aren't coming into town for a while (I hope they weren't caught away from home).

Much of the Dead River course has been dewatered or flooded through the system of dams and diversion flumes that have created hydro power for the iron mines west of Negaunee and Ishpeming. The big coal plant that sends power to the mines is right at the mouth of the Dead on Lake Superior. The final dam, that creates the Dead River Basin I lived on, is immediately above CR 553, the route up to Big Bay, at the city limits. The course is rather steep coming down from the highlands where the Silver Lake Basin is located, with some great falls (what's left of them) in fairly narrow little canyons. Any further breaching could really reconfigure the whole system -- including whether current regulations would let some of these marginal hydro dams be rebuilt. The pressure to do so would be intense due to the recreational aspects, though when you see antique photos of the waterfalls and canyons, some really wonderful stuff was destroyed by the impoundment system.

My wife just called to say my mother-in-law has been reassured by officials that she is not in any danger.”

“Hey bitpusher, thanks for the heads up on this! Just proves TT is a valuable community asset.”

“Glad to hear your mom-in-law is A-OK, Pekka. Hope everyone stays safe up there.

When things settle down a bit, I'll try to contact a guy I used to work with, who's head of the engineering department at the Marquette County ROad Commission. I'm sure he's pretty busy right now.”

“Yeah, only a little busy, lol.

My wife is going up Saturday to pick up my step-daughter, so she'll get a little news.

There's a great unofficial hike-in campsite up at Dead River Falls out past Forestville that I wouldn't want to be in right now as they wait to see if the Hoist Dam holds. Of course if they're letting extra flow through the gates up river, it may be underwater already. But I bet the falls are roaring if that's the case, and would be worth seeing.”

“Oh, heck. I just read through that entire Mining Journal article, and my former co-worker is even quoted. Jim Iwanicki. Funny guy, horrible laugh.

Pekka,I thought the other dam broke yesterday.”

“The story on public radio this morning wasn't clear on whether it had or hadn't. There are a couple more dams below Hoist, but what ability they have to take on the load I don't know. They are small hydro facilities that count on pass through as much as retention.”

“Latest AP story says another dam did fail, but the two other held and that waters are ebbing. Some apparent road and bridge disruption (whether washed out or just flooded over not clear), but that situation is improving without anyone in the city directly flooded.

Lots of debris flushed through the system.”

“http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm14509_20030516.htm

Governor Granholm has declared a state of emergency. BUt it sounds like no one lost their home.”

“Wow, quite a mess up at Marquette. Go to my old newspaper, www.miningjournal.net for the full scoop, including photos and several sidebar stories. In the aerial photo of the river mouth (with the sidebar about the powerplant and mines having to shutdown) you can see a round silver thing, NMU's Superior Dome, near the top center edge of the photo. Our Marquette house is just between the dome and the edge of the picture. As you can see, not too far from the action, but far enough. Lots of silt and debris in the pretty blue waters of Superior now.

The second dam that went was the Tourist Park dam that held back the basin I used to live on the banks of. Good thing the city built a new bridge over the river just below that dam -- it's high enough to survive, but the old bridge (now a bike path) didn't. I was calling that road 553, but it really is 550, for those of you who know the way up to Big Bay.

The key dams in between, Hoist, McClure and Forestville, have held, though passing water over their tops.”

“Talked to my daughter up in Marquette, and she referred me to the city's website for photos.

www.mqtcty.org

follow links about flood info and photos. A total of 5 albums that show flooding and damage from the Silver Lake impoundment (now mostly drained) down to Lake Superior, including the washed out Tourist Park Dam. If any of you have ever heard of the Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival, it takes place at Tourist Park each July. Oops, no beachfront sundbathing for the fiddlers and cloggers this year!”

“Just had a call from my wife, who went up to Marquette Saturday. She went out on a flood damage drive this afternoon and stopped down at my old cabin on the river to find it still intact, but no impoundment out front anymore, just the original river channel right in front, with acres of silt- and debris-covered former bottom stretching out on the other side. She talked to my former landlady, whose house is next door and also right on the riverbank. She got a call at 4 a.m. the day of the dam break from the cops, saying, and I quote, "We have water missing from the Silver Lake Basin. Please evacuate."

Missing, LOL! And we know where it's headed!

For her house and my former digs, it was the failure of the Tourist Park dam at the head of the impoundment a half mile downstream that saved them from being flooded. My wife said she could look up the river course and see giant pines toppled into the channel.

The trout and salmon anglers are already lobbying to keep the Tourist Park dam from being rebuilt, since it is the first one upstream from Superior. Some heavy wrangling ahead, I expect.”