Flooding strands mobile home community

PORT HURON TWP. - Stan Marquardt spent Monday at home instead of going to work.

"It gets old," he said of the rising water outside his home in the Port of Call mobile home community.

Heavy rains flooded the community of 146 homes Monday, with maintenance crews bringing in an extra pump to try to clear the streets.

Port Huron Township Fire Chief Craig Miller said firefighters ensured no one was stranded in vehicles in the community.

He said maintenance crews were working to reduce the water in the park through portable pumps, as well as repairing a failed pump on the property.

Officials at Minnesota Lake, which manages the property at 1425 Dove Road, were not immediately available for comment.

Marquardt said there are pumps in the park to help alleviate the flooding issue, but they weren't keeping up with Monday's rainfall.

"We're not experts, but when the same problem happens over and over and over over a 10-year period, you need to do something differently," he said.

Jeff Friedland, director of St. Clair County Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the Black River is also being monitored for flooding.

The Black River near Jeddo was higher than 10 feet at about 3 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A week prior the water levels were below 5 feet.

"(Water levels) are still up from last week’s rain so runoff over the next couple of days could pose problems," said Friedland.

Water levels spiked to nearly 11 feet in the Black River near Jeddo Sunday.

Friedland said the lack of ice in the river is helping alleviate worse flooding.

"As these waterways rise there is the potential for flooding of lower-lying areas," he said. "In the past we have experienced flooding in the Belle River and Black River areas. If there was ice still on the rivers, it would impede the flow of water to the St. Clair River resulting in a fast rise of water."

Bob Wiley, the county's drain commissioner, was patrolling drains Monday watching for flooding.

"We take calls as they come and see what we can do, sometimes we get lucky and it's just a jam we can pull out and get the water to flow," he said.

Contact Liz Shepard at (810) 989-6273 or lshepard@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @lvshepard.