Rapidly rising water overtook dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people in central Michigan, where flooding struck communities along rain-swollen waterways and the governor said one downtown could be “under approximately nine feet of water“ by Wednesday.

Shakespeare’s Globe theater faces permanent closure due to Covid-19 lockdown

By Wednesday morning, water that was several feet high covered some streets near the river in downtown Midland, including riverside parkland, and reaching a hotel and parking lots.

The National Weather Service urged anyone near the river to seek higher ground following “catastrophic dam failures” at the Edenville dam, about 140 miles north of Detroit, and the Sanford dam, about seven miles downriver.

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer said downtown Midland, a city of 42,000 about eight miles downstream from the Sanford Dam, faced an especially serious flooding threat.

Dow Chemical Company’s main plant sits on the city’s riverbank.

“In the next 12 to 15 hours, downtown Midland could be under approximately 9ft of water,“ the governor said during a late Tuesday briefing. “We are anticipating an historic high water level.”

Source: Michigan: thousands evacuated after ‘catastrophic’ dam failures