Last weekend’s storms left a few Downriver communities with some flooding, while others escaped mostly unscathed.
In Taylor, I-94 was flooded in both directions near Telegraph Road. There were unconfirmed television reports that a tornado actually touched down on the freeway, city officials said.
Some parts of the city also sustained wind damage, and limited flooding affected some areas of the city’s northeast end, as the Reeck Drain near I-94 and the Ecorse Creek exceeded their banks.
Rick Lang, Allen Park city engineer and director of Public Services, said 30 to 40 basements were
backed up in the subdivision along the Ecorse Creek.
“Except the flooding of the river, I thought we were pretty fortunate. We are working with Republic Waste to pick up a lot of damage debris from the basements,” he said Thursday. Officials hoped to have that cleaned up bySaturday.
A $23-million tunnel project to alleviate that problem is in the early stages, Lang said, and should be done in 12 to 18 months.
“We’re enlarging the system for additional capacity and conveyance,” he said.
No power outages or downed trees were reported in Melvindale, according to Eric Witte, director of Public Works, though a dozen or so scattered houses’ basements were flooded in the city’s north end due to a partial backup.
He said it was “just a couple inches and not wall to wall.”
“It kind of varied based on the depth of their basement,” Witte said. Gary Ellison, Wyandotte superintendent of Public Service, said he had not heard of any power outages in his city, but added he does not oversee such repairs.
“Flooded streets are our primary problem,” hesaid, adding that there were “a couple” of flooded basements and some fallen tree branches.
“I think they worked eight hours on Sunday on flooded streets and a few hours on tree branch removal,”
Ellison said. “We were very fortunate we didn’t get hit with much basement flooding or wind damage like some of the other communities.”
No damage was reported in Lincoln Park, Riverview, Southgate or Trenton.