Southfield Freeway flooded
Have you ever experienced a disaster first hand? On August 11, 2014 a storm hit the entire state of Michigan impacting many cities most notably Detroit and Dearborn. This storm was so severe that it poured six inches of rain in two hours. That has only happened in our area five hundred years ago.
This flood sent rolling waves through out the roads and many people we’re stranded, waiting for rescue. Many people’s cars had been destroyed and their homes flooded. City officials and people had a lot to say about this flood. It was taken very seriously.
Many citizens of Dearborn had their houses flooded. One of them is Andrew Faheem, an 8th grader at Unis Middle School. He stated “The flood affected me greatly. It messed up my heater, I couldn’t take a hot shower for a whole week, and I had to replace my heater and drywall.” Andrew nails the spot saying he is one of the many people in Dearborn who got their house flooded. Also, he says that “The city was able to help my family and came once we reported it and they connected us to money sources.”
Andrew continued to comment saying, “I never would expect a flood to occur in Dearborn, since it’s not a high flood area.” Furthermore he states “I don’t think I’m prepared for another flood, but I would like to start.” These are one of the countless people who had their houses flooded from this natural disaster. You should never be scared to tell city officials what happened or report it.
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) are a disaster assistance agency and helped the whole state of Michigan. FEMA has a federal program called Individuals & Household program. I was able to talk to a worker there and he stated, “The local state authorities and governors send a proposal to the President and open the state it receive money. This isn’t a loan. We help with rental, home repairs, personal equipment, medical, etc.” FEMA has it’s own website (fema.gov) where you can submit in a report if you’ve been in a disaster and on it you can also learn more about them.
City officials had also helped in this natural disaster that had taken place in Dearborn. I was able to speak to Mary Launbroche, an assistant to the mayor. She says “We offered free pickup of flood damaged materials, offered claims to city of Dearborn, and encouraged people to file with a report to us and FEMA.” That is how they helped.
She also stated “We believe more than ten thousand households needed backup or had water coming in. A lot of staff resources and time we’re dedicated to out citizens.” She makes a point by stating “The storm that hit was so severe that we would expect it to occur every five hundred years. Since we got a lot of rain our system couldn’t handle it. It’s designed to handle storms that occur every one hundred years. It wouldn’t be realistic to build a system that could handle a five hundred year storm.”
Lastly, Mary says “There is nothing we could do differently and we encourage citizens to buy insurance that would cover during basement backups. Many citizens didn’t have that type of insurance.” I had a great time talking to Mary about the flood.
When your in a natural disaster always reach to your city officials, since they’ll always be able to help and direct you.
What are your thoughts on the flood that hit Michigan and it’s cities? Sound off in the comments!
Zein Alfurati
Unis Middle School Journalist