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A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 12 February 2020
High water wreaks havoc on Great Lakes, swamping communities

By JOHN FLESHER their long-term averages
AP Environmental Writer through June. Michigan
MANISTEE, Mich. (AP) — and Huron already are 17
Rita Alton has an unusual inches (43 centimeters)
morning routine these days: higher than a year ago.
Wake up. Get dressed. Go Another ominous sign: Ice
outside to see if her house cover is light this winter.
is closer to tumbling down Shoreline ice provides a
an 80-foot (24.4-meter) cliff buffer against pounding
into Lake Michigan. waters. In its absence, Chi-
When her father built cago's Lake Michigan wa-
the 1,000-square-foot terfront was battered by
(93-square-meter), brick waves reaching 23 feet (7
bungalow in the early meters) high during a mid-
1950s near Manistee, Mich- January storm.
igan, more than an acre That means the potential
of land lay between it and for further damage will in-
the drop-off overlooking crease as spring snowmelt
the giant freshwater sea. and rains arrive, said Ethan
But erosion has acceler- Theuerkauf, a Michigan
ated dramatically as the State University geologist.
lake approaches its highest "This would include exten-
levels in recorded history, sive beach, dune and bluff
hurling powerful waves into In this Jan. 14, 2020, photo, Rita Alton stands next to her house on the edge of a cliff overlooking erosion, but also damage
the mostly clay bluff. Lake Michigan near Manistee, Mich. to coastal infrastructure
Now, the jagged clifftop is Associated Press and more lakefront homes
about eight feet from Al- The toll is extensive: homes The situation is inspiring Lakes Ontario and Erie last falling in," he said.
ton's back deck. and businesses flooded; soul-searching over how year reached their highest Members of Congress from
"It's never been like this, roads and sidewalks crum- to cope with a long-term points since record keep- the region are seeking fed-
never," she said on a re- bled; beaches washed challenge unique to this ing began in 1918. eral funds for barrier con-
cent morning, peering away; parks were rendered region. While communities Superior surpassed several struction, dredging and
down the snow-dusted hill- unusable. Docks that boats along ocean coasts brace all-time monthly averages restoring shorelines. State
side as bitter gusts churned previously couldn't reach for rising seas, experts say and did so again in Janu- lawmakers in Michigan are
surf along the shoreline be- because the water was the Great Lakes can now ary. Lakes Huron and Michi- pushing to expand the cri-
low. "The destruction is just too shallow are now sub- expect repeated, abrupt gan did likewise last month, teria for declaring emer-
incredible." merged. swings between extreme according to the U.S. Army gencies that could trigger
On New Year's Eve, an un- At one point last year, highs and lows. Corps of Engineers in De- government assistance for
occupied cottage near ferry service was halted in "It wasn't long ago they troit. people struggling to pro-
Muskegon, Michigan, the Lake Erie island com- were worried about Lake Even Ontario, where a hy- tect their homes.
plunged from an embank- munity of Put-In-Bay after Michigan drying up. Now dropower dam provides But local officials acknowl-
ment to the water's edge. the vessels' landing spot it's full," said Rich Warner, more stability, has experi- edge a need for innovative
Another down the coast disappeared beneath the emergency services direc- enced record highs twice approaches to the lakes'
was dismantled a month waves. On Mackinac Is- tor for Muskegon County. in the past three years. increasing fickleness.
earlier to prevent the same land in Lake Huron, por- "All these ups and downs — "That's not supposed to In South Haven, Michigan,
fate. tions of the only paved I don't know if that's some- happen," said Drew Grone- consultants have devel-
High water is wreaking hav- road washed away. thing you can truly plan wold, a University of Michi- oped a $16.3 million list of
oc across the Great Lakes, Homeowners and agen- for." gan hydrologist. "That lake infrastructure projects, in-
which are bursting at the cies are extending bat- Levels are always chang- is carefully regulated." cluding installing structures
seams less than a decade tered seawalls, construct- ing in the Great Lakes, Climate change is believed to absorb and dispel en-
after bottoming out. The ing berms and piling stones which together hold about to influence water temper- ergy from Lake Michigan
sharp turnabout is fueled and sandbags. Some are 90% of the surface fresh atures and precipitation, waves.
by the region's wettest pe- elevating houses or moving water in the U.S. They typi- which wage a constant The Lake Erie town of Luna
riod in more than a century them farther inland. Even cally decline in fall and win- tug-of-war with lake levels. Pier, Michigan, is consid-
that scientists say is likely shanties in a historic Michi- ter, then rise in spring and Warmer water boosts evap- ering spending millions to
connected to the warming gan fishing village dating summer as melting snow oration, which pushed lev- replace dikes built nearly
climate. No relief is in sight, to 1903 are being raised. and rainfall replenish them. els downward about 20 a half-century ago — a
as forecasters expect the The state's environment de- Broader fluctuations take years ago. But as the atmo- steep price for a village of
lakes to remain high well partment has issued more place over longer periods. sphere warms, it sucks up only 1,500 residents. A wa-
into 2020 and perhaps lon- than 400 permits for such Levels surged in the 1980s more moisture from other terfront hotel on Mackinac
ger. projects. before dropping sharply in regions and dumps it into Island has hired specialists
the 2000s. the lakes, filling them back from Finland to revise its
But increasingly, the highs up. drainage.
are higher and the lows "Those two forces are in- "The climate is doing some
lower — and the variations creasing in intensity at the weird and crazy things
happen faster. Lakes Supe- same time," suggesting the and we need to be pre-
rior, Huron and Michigan up-and-down shifts may pared with stronger and
had bigger jumps between become more extreme, more flexible infrastructure
2013-14 than during any Gronewold said. instead of just covering
comparable period. It took How long before the wa- cracks," said Herasanna
just seven years to go from ters recede is anyone's Richards, legislative associ-
record slumps to all-time guess. The Army Corps pre- ate with the Michigan Mu-
peaks. dicts the lakes will exceed nicipal League.q