The urgent evacuation of 10,000 people from communities below two failing dams in central Michigan last month prevented the loss of life, but the collapsed dams expelled billions of gallons of water from two large lakes, sending them hurtling downstream in a powerful rush of destruction. Water ripped buildings off their foundations, smashed and twisted roads and bridges, damaged or destroyed an estimated 2,500 properties and triggered fears of contamination as it swept by a chemical plant and hazardous waste sites and submerged downtown Midland — a city of 40,000 people — under 9 feet of water.
The disaster on May 19 and 20 caused at least $175 million in damage, authorities say, and left behind two empty lake beds. The Gorthys and other homeowners who once watched water skiers zip by their doors now gaze out on a soggy moonscape of sand pocked with mangled docks, half-buried pontoon boats and clusters of tree stumps that somehow remained under the water for a century since dams built to generate hydroelectric power first flooded the forest to create the Sanford and Wixom lakes.
The Tittabawassee River has now returned to its natural size, gently flowing like a line drawn through the middle of the two giant bowls where the lakes used to be.
