Great Lakes' Water Levels Higher Than In Past Century; Homes & Shorelines Eroding Fast

[hatrack]

MANISTEE, Mich. (AP) – High water levels are wreaking havoc in the Great Lakes. The five inland seas are bursting at the seams during the region’s wettest period in more than a century, which scientists say is likely connected to the warming climate.

And no relief is in sight. Forecasters expect the lakes to remain high well into 2020. Homes and businesses are flooding, roads and sidewalks are crumbling and beaches are washing away.

Homeowners and agencies are extending battered seawalls, constructing berms and piling stones and sandbags. Some are elevating houses or moving them farther inland.

Less than a decade ago, the Great Lakes had the opposite problem: levels were at record lows. Experts say these abrupt swings may continue as global warming brings more extreme storms and droughts

MANISTEE, Mich. — Rita Alton has an unusual morning routine these days: Wake up. Get dressed. Go outside to see if her house is closer to tumbling down an 80-foot (24.4-meter) cliff into Lake Michigan.

When her father built the 1,000-square-foot (93-square-meter), brick bungalow in the early 1950s near Manistee, Michigan, more than acre of land lay between it and the drop-off overlooking the giant freshwater sea. But erosion has accelerated dramatically as the lake approaches its highest levels in recorded history, hurling powerful waves into the mostly clay bluff.

Now, the jagged clifftop is about eight feet from Alton’s back deck. “It’s never been like this, never,” she said on a recent morning, peering down the snow-dusted hillside as bitter gusts churned surf along the shoreline below. “The destruction is just incredible.” On New Year’s Eve, an unoccupied cottage near Muskegon, Michigan, plunged from an embankment to the water’s edge. Another down the coast was dismantled a month earlier to prevent the same fate.

EDIT

The toll is extensive: homes and businesses flooded; roads and sidewalks crumbled; beaches washed away; parks were rendered unusable. Docks that boats previously couldn’t reach because the water was too shallow are now submerged. At one point last year, ferry service was halted in the Lake Erie island community of Put-In-Bay after the vessels’ landing spot disappeared beneath the waves. On Mackinac Island in Lake Huron, portions of the only paved road washed away.

EDIT

https://climatecrocks.com/2020/02/07/high-water-a-climate-hazard-on-great-lakes/#more-58872

[mopinko]

1. lost 2 small beaches in chicago.

and the lake level was so high all last year i had standing water in my yard, something i have not only never seen, but did not think was even possible in this sandy soil.

[lunasun]

2. They just showed on tv apartments up north in Chicago the waves are hitting the windows

One resident interviewed said there used to be a big beach in front of this building

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chicago-takes-a-beating-as-lake-levels-surge/
Chicago is taking a climate beating from Lake Michigan.
City beaches and parks are disappearing under record-high water levels. Autumn gales are landing 12-foot waves against Lake Shore Drive. Federal, state and city agencies are scrambling to armor the shore, and infrastructure repair is taxing an already cash-strapped city.

[safeinOhio]

3. In Michigan, you do not want

an address with "Lake Shore Drive" on it.

[Kaleva]

4. I never understood the lure of living on the shore of Lake Superior

The wind could be bitingly cold, the bugs came out in force when thr wind died down and lake effect snow along with the wind could bury your home

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Was just about to post the AP story until I saw it's the 2nd link.

From the article: "... that scientists say is likely connected to the warming climate."

Go ahead, Michganders, vote for the hollow orange shell of a human being who says AGW is "a hoax".