Severe flash flooding devastated communities in Texas over the weekend, but forecasters in Michigan say that kind of flooding is unlikely to happen here.
Andrew Dixon is a senior service hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.
"We benefit in Michigan from having relatively flat terrain, and we also have deep and rich soils that can readily absorb or infiltrate a lot of the water that does fall," he said.
Dixon says the state typically either sees short-term flooding in urban areas where there's concrete and poor drainage allowing water to pool or more slow-moving flooding out of rivers.
He says it can take up to a few days for the Grand River, Red Cedar River or Sycamore Creek in Mid-Michigan to crest after heavy rains, which gives communities more time to prepare and respond.
"We're in a significantly different time scale than other parts of the country, the Appalachians or maybe the Hill Country of Texas or out West," he said.
"There's enough time built into the system here. We can run our river models and have a really good sense of what the impact is going to be before the water actually rises to those levels."
That doesn't mean dangerous or severe flooding is impossible in the Greater Lansing area.
The Grand River in Lansing saw historic floods in 1975 and, more recently, in 2018.
In East Lansing, poor water drainage is a major cause of flooding where current sewer infrastructure isn't always able to handle large amounts of water. A 140-year-storm in 2021 caused damage to several homes. Parts of the city were also submerged during heavy rainfall last summer.
East Lansing has been working on a Wet Weather Resiliency Plan to mitigate future flooding.
Dixon says it's more likely flash flooding in Michigan would occur because of an external factor like a dam failure.
Two dams on the Tittabawassee River were breached in May of 2020 in Midland and Gladwin counties after heavy rain. Thousands were forced to evacuate as the resulting flood caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Forecasters with the NWS will send out different types of alerts when it comes to flooding.
A flood advisory means water may be ponding on roadways and causing travel difficulties, but there's no major damage or safety risks.
A flood warning means flooding is happening, and water is potentially reaching into homes and buildings. Dixon says this is when people might need to take action to protect themselves or their properties.
A flash flood warning means flooding is happening within a generally short period of time after rain, about six hours or less, and people in flood-prone areas should get to high ground for their safety.
Dixon says in emergency situations, the National Weather Service does have the ability to push alerts to cellphones in the affected communities.
"We make sure that we only activate this when it's the most significant situation because we don't want to get into a 'boy who cried wolf' type situation where people end up turning off these alerts on their phone."
Dixon says those alerts need to stay on because "they're meant to protect you and the people around you."
