Communities throughout southern Berrien County have been affected by flooding due to storms overnight Tuesday, and Bridgman was the worst hit. City Manager Juan Ganum tells WSJM News a city engineer says it was a 200 year rain event.
“My understanding is the amount of rainfall at one point was about 16 inches per hour in Bridgman, and over a three to four hour period, we had between six inches and seven inches,” Ganum said. “I believe we recorded 6.3 inches down at our water plant at Weko Beach.”
There’s been localized flooding.
“We have had significant localized flooding in certain neighborhoods. One neighborhood, in particular, was extremely hard hit. The Donna Vista and Hidden Creek neighborhood, where is where most of our attention has been focused today in trying to alleviate the problems they’ve experienced there.”
A local creek that empties into Lake Michigan looked a lot different Tuesday morning. Ganum says Tanner Creek looked like something you could go white water rafting on. He says it’s a good thing the Berrien County Drain Commission just completed some work to strengthen that drain. He also notes city infrastructure wasn’t damaged. He says the water is receding, but the task now is cleanup.
