The Sanford Dam is back in operation nearly six years after its failure, marking a major milestone for a community still recovering from widespread flooding and the loss of Sanford Lake.

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.

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.