Monroe County hit hard by Lake Erie flooding
MONROE COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - Monroe County crews are working around the clock to address Thursday's flooding.
The hope is to have every impacted community dry by Friday evening.
Strong easterly winds sent waves from Lake Erie crashing over dikes and break walls, putting communities in Monroe County underwater.
"Today we got up just past the side of the house to the front toward the street," said Dave Malone. "And you see in the backyard it's starting to recede but the whole back was underwater, even with the whole deck out there."
The North Shores and Grandview Beach neighborhoods in LaSalle were some of the hardest hit. The flooding gave residents the kind of welcome no one wants but everyone has come to expect.
"Since last April we've had two big ones last April and this April, and then we've had two minor ones where there was standing water in here," said Toby Wegener.
Roads were turned into rivers, front lawns into lakes and standing water took up residence in some homes.
"Carpets, hardwood floors, drywall, electrical, cars, sofas I mean everything. Once your house gets wet it's just awful," said Thomas Keeney.
"It's kind of like a bowl in here so in the middle it gets pretty bad," said Toby Wegener. "So you probably have 12-15 houses in here starting to have some water damage inside of them."
The Monroe County Drain Commission had all 12 of its pumps running. The drain commissioner says at one point conditions were so bad, they could not keep up with the water coming over dikes even as they pumped nearly 20,000 gallons of water a minute back into Lake Erie.
"We gave a 100 percent today and unfortunately it doesn't matter how many pumps you have if mother nature's going to flood you, she's going to do it," said David P. Thompson, Monroe County Drain Commissioner.
"It's kind of one of those things, when you live on the lake you have to expect this," said Thomas Keeney.
People living here are bracing for round two with more strong winds could come Sunday.