Dam Breaks in Michigan
Heavy rainfall and rising floodwaters led to the breaching of two privately-owned dams in Michigan on the evening of May 19, 2020.
The Edenville and Sanford dams each lie north of Midland, MI, a community of approximately 41,000 around 20 miles west of Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron and 65 miles northwest of the city of Flint.
The breaks had an immediate and dramatic impact. Streamgage data from the Tittabawassee River at Midland put the waters at 35 feet the day after the breaches –more than 10 feet above flood stage. The communities of Midland, Edenville, and Sanford were among those evacuated as the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings.
The Landsat 8 satellite passed over the area the day after the dam breaks and captured imagery of the flooding that followed.
This pair of pan-sharpened natural color images were created using bands 4,3,2, and 8 from the satellite’s Operational Land Imager (OLI). The first shows the Sanford dam 15 days before the breach, with the waters of Sanford Lake secure to the north of the city of Sanford. The second shows the area on May 20, 2020, one day after the break. Muddy floodwaters are visible running through Sanford. The water flows southeast, covering lands in and south of Midland along the river’s path.
The second set of images come from the USGS Landsat Missions team. They were created using OLI bands 6,5, and 4, and show a wider view with both dams. The shortwave infrared and near infrared bands (6 and 4, respectively) render the floodwaters in a lighter aqua blue, more clearly highlighting the extent of their spread.
The flooding is expected to impact more communities as water flows from the Tittabawassee to the Saginaw River. Landsat will continue to collect imagery as the floodwaters move and recede.
Landsat data is available for download at no cost the user through EarthExplorer, GloVis, and LandsatLook.
