Residents Told to Evacuate After Michigan Levee Breached

Residents in northern Michigan were urged to evacuate on Tuesday afternoon after a levee breach near the city of Cheboygan, local officials said, as strong storms and floods strained much of the Upper Midwest.

For days, state and local crews have been shoring up the Cheboygan Dam, where water has risen rapidly, and have warned residents to prepare for an evacuation. But the breach reported on Tuesday was elsewhere, at a levee in the Little Black River Watershed.

Cheboygan County officials released an evacuation map that appeared to include about half of the city of Cheboygan, which has a population of around 4,800. Attempts to reach the sheriff’s office and state officials were not immediately successful.

The sheriff’s office said on social media that emergency responders were helping with the evacuation. The office asked residents to signal their departure by leaving a towel or other fabric on their door handle.

The Cheboygan Dam has been the subject of concern from officials for the last several days. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had declared a state of emergency on Friday as melting snow and heavy rain increased water levels. Sheriff Todd Ross of Cheboygan County said the state of emergency had allowed the release of resources and funding ahead of the rising water over the weekend and that a “huge crew” had been working to lower water levels at the dam.

But more rain late Monday pushed water closer to the top of that dam. And additional rain is on the way, according to the National Weather Service and the National Water Prediction Service. They warned of additional rain upstream of the dam in the days to come as a series of storms moves through the region. “This is a prolonged flooding event in the affected areas,” forecasters wrote. “Be prepared for impacts from high water to last through the week, and potentially longer.”

A flood watch was in place for much of northern and central Michigan, and roads have been closed as rain has inundated areas around rising streams and rivers. Part of the famed Tunnel of Trees driving route collapsed, according to a social media post from the nearby Good Hart General Store.

The Weather Service office in Gaylord, Mich., said several rivers had flooded as of Tuesday, including the Manistee, near Sherman; the Au Sable, near Red Oak; the Rifle, near Sterling; and the Pine, near Rudyard.

Earlier Monday, as water levels reached within a foot of the top of the Cheboygan Dam, emergency officials enacted the first phase of a three-part evacuation plan for the region. “Ready” tells residents to have a plan handy in case evacuations are ordered. “Set” tells them water is predicted to top the dam within 48 hours. “Go” means the dam’s failure is imminent and evacuations are ordered.

Two local lawmakers, State Representative Cam Cavitt and State Senator John Damoose, posted an update on social media earlier Monday as they stood in front of the Cheboygan Dam’s spillway. “The cavalry’s on site,” Mr. Cavitt said. “We’re just trying to hope mother nature doesn’t deal us a bad card right now.”

Erin McCann is the deputy editor for The Times’s Weather team. She is based in San Francisco.

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