Ice jams wreak havoc along St. Clair River as residents bear down for arctic temps

ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - Heavy snow and high water are not a good combination. 

Thursday night's bone-chilling temperatures are not going to help the US and Canadian coast guards who are racing to break up the ice along the St. Clair River. Ice jams are causing water to spill over the seawall, onto roads, and into yards.

"There's all kind of water under my house and, we can still live in it, but we'll see how things go," said one resident, Dave.

"This is the highest the water has ever been," said Eddie Kulman. "We're just worried because this house is on a slab. If water comes in,  it's coming right in."

People living along the St. Clair River in St. Clair County are dealing with the worst from old man winter.

"We've got a northeast wind and it's breaking all the ice loose from Canada, the ice goes down the river and when it can't flow, it just backs up," Dave said.

And that means water and ice everywhere and a state of emergency now in effect. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is providing technical support to both coast guards' icebreaking operations.

Residents are sandbagging around the clock with Kulman doing what he can to keep the floodwaters at bay.

"I'm just worried about next week's forecast, they are talking about getting down to single digits, almost zero," he said.

People living along the river will tell you what's happening right now isn't an unusual occurrence.

"Every year it happens a little bit - but by far, this is the worst," Kulman said.

"We just didn't understand why it happened so severely," said Randy Newhouse. "Because we didn't have heavy rains, didn't have a lot of snow. (If we knew) we could have anticipated this a little better."