Officials celebrate return of crucial waterway 5 years after near-catastrophe: You could hear the water ... just roaring'

After half a decade of staring at a barren canal where a lake once was, a small Michigan community is finally beginning to restore its once-flourishing waterway, according to WCMU. 

As if the United States weren't dealing with enough problems in May 2020, a historic rainfall in Central Michigan caused spillover from several dams, including those in Edenville and Sanford, quickly leading to their collapse. This caused evacuations of local towns (thankfully, no one was harmed), and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered investigations into both the incidents and the dams' owner, a private citizen. 

Meanwhile, the dam in the town of Forest Lake got slammed with so much rain during this period that its spillway was fully hemorrhaging water. 

"You could hear the water going down the spillway, roar, just roaring," said Alyce Oertel, a longtime area resident. 

Thankfully, the Forest Lake dam held. But the spillway had been reduced to rubble, and once the lake's levels receded post-flooding, the government "kept the lake seven to eight feet below its normal level as they worked to figure out a plan." 

"It would create such a danger that if we ever did get a second rain like that, we would not be able to deliver the water downstream," said Forest Lake Property Owners Association president Vito Manzella.

Instead, the community focused on first rebuilding the spillway before raising the lake back to its pre-flooding levels. The process took a little longer than expected, but five years and about $12 million in government grants later, a celebration is finally warranted. 

If recent predictions proved true, the lake was expected to return in full force by Memorial Day Weekend. This is great news, not just for Forest Lake but for members of any community, wondering if and how they will be able to bounce back from climate calamities as they become more common and dangerous. 

"Anytime you set a goal and achieve it's a good thing, right?" Manzella said. "People are in good spirits and we're all looking forward to getting this lake back."

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