SANFORD LAKE

SANFORD, MI - A short year ago, Sanford’s Center Street experienced constant vehicle traffic as Sanford Lake slowly rose and water gushed through the dam. Later that evening on May 19, 2020, thousands of residents were evacuated due to the failure of Edenville and Sanford dams. A year later, hundreds of people stood near the Sanford Dam in unity to remember, be there for one another and celebrate how far they have come. Sanford Village President Dolores Porte was surprised to be given a special recognition during the ceremony as the never-ending support from her community caused her emotions to overwhelm her. “I tell people, ‘this isn’t just a village, this is an experience’ and it really is.

The task force paid $1.5 million to acquire the Edenville, Sanford, Secord and Smallwood dams through eminent domain as a delegate of Midland and Gladwin counties. The Four Lakes Task Force says it plans to restore the Wixom Lake and Sanford Lake impoundments drained by the dam failures. The task force plans to spend about $300 million to repair the broken dams over the next six years. The disaster prompted renewed attention on dam safety in Michigan. A state dam safety task force in February warned of another “grave situation” in a report to the governor and legislature if the state’s safety regulations aren’t updated.

MIDLAND COUNTY, Mich. – It’s been eight months since the devastating floods in Midland County. “She did find us for a reason, I believe,” Ashley Flood said. “And so, we actually, we definitely played our part, I think.”On a cold snowy winter day, The Flood family heard a cat outside meowing for hours. “It seemed well fed and its coat was rather clean,” Ashley Flood said. They took the cat to the Humane Society of Midland County and found out the cat was micochipped.

Or rather, what was Sanford and Wixom Lake. In May, the failure of the Edenville and Sanford dams led to the drainage of Sanford and Wixom Lake. While a smaller river continues to run through the lakebeds, new, hazardous features have been uncovered. “Winter changes everything, if it’s snowing and you can’t see very far,” Gladwin County Emergency Director Robert North told the Midland Daily News. These two construction projects make the Tobacco River arm of Wixom Lake unusually dangerous this winter.

SANFORD, MI — A six-month-old pile of flooding debris in Midland County is finally being cleaned up after the failure of two mid-Michigan dams this spring. Fisher Contracting crews began removing trashed boats, sunken canoes, lawn furniture, propane tanks, broken docks and many tree pieces from the Sanford Dam this week. “This is all material that came down from both lakes and piled up behind this dam structure,” said Bill Gebo, Four Lakes Task Force project coordinator. Substantial debris accumulated at the Sanford Dam, which itself was overtopped by floodwaters from the Wixom and Sanford Lake impoundments that were unleashed when the earthen dyke in Edenville collapsed. People with items in the debris pile have been prohibited from retrieving them out of concern doing so could shift the pile and cause further damage to the dam.

LANSING, Mich. – Labor Day Weekend on Sanford Lake is typically filled with boats and people having fun on the water. After May’s dam failures emptied the lake, many residents are left wondering how long it’ll take to come back. Residents are still hopeful things will return to normal. The state ordered Boyce Hydro -- the owners of the dams -- to make emergency repairs Tuesday, but since the company filed for bankruptcy, the state will likely be forced to foot the bill. Edenville faces Labor Day weekend without their beloved Wixom LakeYou can watch Tim Pamplin’s full stories above in the video players above.

Nature is returning to the dry beds of a string of mid-Michigan lakes that drained in May after two dams failed during torrential rains. (AP Photo/ Jeff McMillan)LANSING, Mich. Nature is returning to craters left from lakes drained by two dams that failed in May during torrential rain in mid-Michigan. It hopes to restore the infrastructure and shoreline of Wixom and Sanford lakes and prevent homes from being lost to the eroding edges of what were once the lakes. Under eminent domain, the owners, Boyce Hydro and and Boyce Hydro Power, could be ordered to sell the properties to the task force as the governmental body representing the counties, task force spokesperson Stacey Trapani said. Four Lakes Task Force estimates it will cost more than $30 million to stop the erosion, remove the debris left by the flooding and stabilize all four dams.