Snow and Sediment Pose Flood Risk For Kalamazoo’s Houseless Camps
Melting snow and an extreme sediment buildup within the Kalamazoo River poses a potentially deadly risk to the two large houseless communities on the river’s banks.
The Kalamazoo River has a history of flooding. In recent years, the river had flooded numerous times causing millions of dollars worth of damage to local residents and business across the City of Kalamazoo. In Feb 2018, the river reached a historic 11.7 feet and caused $2.5m in property damages across Kalamazoo County.
This year the river will no doubt flood again, and the 114,000 cubic yards of sediment released into the river by the Morrow Dam in Comstock Township will certainly not help. This excess mud could raise the flooding risk to those in Kalamazoo and is currently destroying fragile ecosystems in the river. The Dam, which is owned by Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, has been dumping the sediment into the river after needing to conduct “emergency repairs” in late 2019.
The group most at risk from the flooding along the Kalamazoo River is the growing houseless population in the two encampments located on city owned brownfield sites. As previously reported, these two camps are ‘city approved’, residents are allowed to live on the land with limited hands off support from the City. Over the last few months City Officials and KDPS have been actively encouraging the houseless population to relocate themselves at these approved camps, rather than seeking other locations. This included the setting up of a temporary heating station which has been removed.
However, from photos and video footage from previous floods we can see that these two locations are at extreme risk to the cold, fast moving water of the muddy Kalamazoo River.
In 2018, the two pieces of land were completely swallowed by the river and there is concern that it could happen again. However, the City does not seem to have plan for relocating the camps onto safer land ahead of a flood. Rather, the City is still encouraging people to move to these two flood prone sites.
Some local groups however, are aware of the risk and are beginning to make plans for an emergency relocation effort. Similarly, some of the residents themselves are aware of the flooding, having being displaced before in floods over the years.
A flood, even a minor one, will displace over 100 people at these sites and will cause damage to tents, sleeping bags and other essentials needed to sleep outside in the freezing Michigan winter. There is concern that if the city does not act, lives may be lost and a community destroyed.
The City of Kalamazoo did not respond when reached for comment.
