Flash Flood in Houghton County, Michigan

Three to nearly seven inches of rainfall in the early morning hours of the 17th caused widespread and catastrophic flash flooding across much of Houghton County from Chassell through Houghton/Hancock to Dollar Bay, Hubbell and Lake Linden. The NOAA Precipitation Frequency Atlas indicated a 1000-year recurrence interval for rainfall amounts of the magnitude which occurred during this event. The Houghton County emergency manager reported that nearly all roads were impassable in central and southern Houghton County. Many homes and businesses were flooded throughout the area, particularly in Houghton/Hancock where one fatality occurred when a basement collapsed at a home on Canal Road. The Administration Building at Michigan Tech University also sustained flood damage. Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of disaster for Houghton County a day after the flooding occurred and damage estimates from flooding are currently over $100 million. Recovery efforts will be ongoing over Houghton County for the next several months.

A very moist and unstable air mass in place and the presence of a nearly stationary frontal boundary produced several rounds of severe storms and flash flooding across portions of west and central Upper Michigan from the 16th into the 17th. The hardest-hit area was in Houghton County where widespread rain amounts of 3 to almost 7 inches caused massive flood damage to the City of Houghton and surrounding areas and resulted in one fatality.