A Bad Water Day For Ludington

[Willy]

The reason I made this a topic is because of the potential cost for any damage / repairs to infrastructure. If the water continues to rise and there is severe ice damage this winter we may have to open our pockets and add to the tax coffers.

I played hooky today and spent some time taking photos. I first went to Little Sable Point. I fear the light house there is in peril. I would hate to see it damaged or destroyed. Many homes along the Lake are in a serious situation of being destroyed if the erosion continues.

Next I visited the boat ramp parking lot and Ludington Ave beach, then the City Marina. All had issues with high water. The following photos are a small fraction of what I took. I didn't include the new construction at Ludington ave beach because all there was to see is water.

Little Sable Point lighthouse. If this lighthouse does not make it thru the winter we will be losing a major tourist draw and a lot of history. I hope there is something in the works to protect this monument to maritime history.

Boat launch parking lot takes a real beating when water is high because the waves crash against the breakwater instead of scraping the sand bottom. The breakwater can take only so much pounding without significant damage.

City Marina docks and the walkway are being damaged as we speak from high water. If the water doesn't recede then the next problem will be the damage caused by ice which could possibly cost a fortune to repair.

[shinblind]

Feel free to use any part of this you wish. But make sure you give a passing reference to the source lest someone accuses you of plagiarism.

If it wasn't for the risk of losing my anonymity on this forum I would have no issue on working to redevelop my post to be used elsewhere. Photos would be nice but I do not have neither before or after pics,(And am old school as to why use a photo when a thousand words works nicely). The aerial images are online as mentioned, if you wish we could collaborate on the exact remote sensing images I referenced. The previous drainage patterns are obvious. 

[Freedom Seeker]

Thanks for that history and insight, Aquaman. My sentiments too. This younger agenda ramrodding pet projects through may only learn lessons by devastation. I was just thinking how many of our forefathers were more cautious because they respected the wisdom of the generation before. That wisdom and respect. imo, has been sadly missing in the recent past young management and mayor and we all suffer when the fruit comes to bear. I hope our young new city manager mans up and shows the ramrodders, secret squirellers and seekers of personal agendas, who are in power now, lesson in wisdom and respect of public input and insight by greater engineering and thorough consideration of projects and budgets.

[David A. Carlson]

Thank you, everyone who has rejected the idea of Global Warming and climate change.  We re now living this problem. It is not going to go away. let us go to work with the rest of the world.... to mitigate the damage.  David A. Carlson, Silver Lake.

[Willy]

David, you must be new to the area. The lakes have been rising and falling for as long as they have existed. We're talking thousands and thousands of years. Long before the environmentalists worried about each blade of grass that is cut. It has nothing to do with Global Warming. Millions of years ago Michigan was a huge lava ocean but there was nobody around to worry about it. This is about the cycles of the Great Lakes. Michigan was also tropical once about a time and without people, cars, and cows. 

[Du Wright]

True, maybe if there were fewer "secret" agendas and meetings then there wouldn't need to be such a rush to ramrod and get poorly-engineered projects pushed through before the public has time to realize what is going on. 

On the other hand when there is a public hearing and large public sentiment is against a project, those in charge seem to brush it off that "they know better," "they know what's best for the majority" or think that those in opposition are "resistant to change" and must be fought against.

[Freedom Seeker]

https://www.in.gov/dnr/water/3661.htm

Some interesting tables from the DNR showing the highest lake level on Huron was June 1886. Probably a lot of gassy cows at that time. Not to minimize Lake levels or global warming but cyclical trends have been happening for five or six ice ages.

[David A. Carlson]

To Freedom Seeker.  Global warming was not known, or described for unusually high water around the Great Lakes in 1886.  It was a rare weather event quite possibly involving the Jet Stream that possibly looped down low across the states. and like, now pulled excessive warm water from the Gulf of Mexico for 1 season.  In the 21st Century, this may happen regularly, with each swoop causing/allowing a further Great Lakes rise to occur.   I am sure a weather person can explain this to someone who does not yet understand Global warming.  This may be a permanent condition: if so, the water level may not go down at all without Human Help, or Meddling.  We are at the top of the hill. MANY Other places and countries for that matter are at the bottom of the hill, and they cannot escape this water.  Think of the many thousands of Pacific Polynesians and Micronesians, whose Islands have disappeared from under their feet,...and there was no rescue.  Now think about the oceans of the world rising from Antarctic ice melts,  This is coming, and a rescue simply by nature won't happen anymore.  CO2 is measured easily, I have done it myself 50 years ago in my lab.  

[XLFD]

David, you seem to have admitted you are not a 'weather person' and all three of the predictions you have made were all prefaced with the word 'may' which makes them effectively meaningless since it 'may not'.  Blaming current lake levels on global warming happened back in 2013 and in 2019 when the levels are much different, with some 'scientists' claiming that extremes and volatility are all part of the climate change crisis.  It's hogwash, Great Lake levels have basically been cyclical over the last 100 years of recording, and the recent volatility is not significantly different than what has occurred in the past; it's normal, as the following graph shows:

What's abnormal is for so-called climate scientists to blame every change in nature on human activities, that's like believing in witches.   What's abnormal is for so-called climate scientists to expect changing certain human behaviors will somehow greatly affect future weather, that's like believing in witchcraft. 

I believe in the scientific method, the systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.  Not witches and witchcraft. 

[David A. Carlson]

I saw here a graphics prediction that the water level in Upper Great Lakes would stay high, according to expected precipitation records.  This suggests that Weather is not local anymore, with the jet stream wandering south and staying there for extended times. While  the North pole sees open water.  Right- local slight anomalies only?  But Greenland remains largely bare..... there is a huge problem.  Antarctica too.  Greenhouse gases, excess CO2. methane release from Tundra.  Tropical Animals, corals and fish moving north.... This is Not Witchcraft.

[XLFD]

'Greenland remains largely bare... Antarctica too'.  Strange this recent graphic shows it covered with ice, Wikipedia says the ice sheet covering Greenland averages around a mile deep, in Antarctica it's even thicker.  If you have alternative facts, I'm more than willing to hear of them.

Science deals with observed reality and logic, not baseless, whimsical hyperbole and crisis-mongering.  If you prefer the terms 'cultists' and 'cult' over 'witches' and 'witchcraft', I will use them in the future when debating points with you, David.

[Freedom Seeker]

I appreciate your concern for the environment, David. I'm not a lover of greenhouse gases, manmade pollution, smog and chemicals or plastics that are killing our plants, animals and humans through suffering cancers. I personally would like to live in a world of solar powered airplanes and wind powered yachts and bicycles instead of cars and use vehicles powered by sun and wind. However. I don't think that's going to happen in our lifetimes with universal acceptance. First we would have to have peace, no greed for other people's land, no guns, artillery, or modern rocket power and have universal plan and agreement.

My point in my earlier comment being that mankind's pollution and gases are not the major cause of this current warming trend. We've had five ice ages in 4.5 billion years--the best scienctifc data can figure and a powerful factor in that is the earth tilt. The planet changes dramatically. Civilizations move from undesirable lowlands, from those that become deserts, from those that are flooded. etc. or they perish. Continents change shape. Rivers dry up. Animals go extinct. Earthquakes happen and new lands rise over billions of years. New rivers and new lands are formed. Animals adapt. People die and survive and adapt.

But I also believe that humankind should revere nature, should not pollute the land and should find cleaner sources of energy.

[Freedom Seeker]

Amazing photos, Willy!