On May 18, 2020, a heavy rainstorm swept across mid-Michigan.
One day later the Edenville dam failed, followed by the Sanford dam. Soon after Wixom Lake, Secord Lake, Sanford Lake, and Smallwood Lake were drained. All the water flowed into the surrounding areas, leaving homes and communities underwater.
By May 20, people were already calling this a "500 year flood". Over 10,000 people in Midland County were ordered to evacuate.
Brad Fedorchak lives on what used to be Sanford Lake. He recently spoke with WCMU to talk about the day of the flood.
"I was actually sitting in my backyard when the failure happened and I watched the water rise in the backyard. It was a very sickening feeling, it was sad," Fedorchak said. "I mean, most people that live on the lake moved here because of the lake and having that devastation fly by the front door was a really sad day. And then shortly after that, I got involved with the Four Lakes Task Force and got to help rebuild. I said, well, I can't fish now and I just retired, so I might as well help rebuild this."
Today, none of the lakes have yet been restored.
Jan Colton lives along Wixom Lake. In her recount of the day of the flood she spoke about how the COVID-19 pandemic was a big factor in how her community reacted.
"It looked like how we kind of imagined what the moon looked like when we were kids and the Apollo missions went up. All you saw was just all of this sand and dirt all over the place," Colton said. "The little pools of water here and there that were full of fish that were flopping around and then all the birds swooped in and the birds started flying away with all the fish.
And it was just very surreal and everybody was very silent. A lot of people crying. And you wanted to hug people, and yet it was COVID and nobody wanted to be hugged. That that was, you know, emotionally the hardest part. We were all social distancing, and so we weren't even allowed to support each other physically."
It eventually came to light that the floods could have been prevented. Dam owner Boyce Hydro had failed to keep up on safety regulations, which had contributed to the dams breaking and the historic flood. The company was fined $120 million in damages. The dams are now owned by the Four Lakes Task Force.
To pay for the dam repairs, the task force has enacted special assessments. After lawsuits against the assessment district, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the $200 million assessments in January. On April 14, 2025, the Michigan Supreme Court denied the appeal of the special assessments, allowing the task force to move forward with repair efforts.
The Four Lakes Task Force plans to have three of the four dams operational by the end of summer 2026, with the Edenville dam projected to be completed by fall of 2027.
