Table of Content
- MichMash: How houses falling into the Great Lakes impacts all of Michigan
- Erosion will continue to be a problem
- Update: Victim's Name Released in Wexford County Sheriff's Office Death Investigation
- 10 News Top Stories
- Oceana Co. Home Starts Falling into Lake Michigan
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More homes are at risk of falling into Lake Michigan due to rapid erosion along the shoreline. “Coming out of my mouth, I imagine it’s going to sound a bit prejudiced, but I think the only solution is picking up a house and moving it from the lakeshore,” he said. Shortly before midnight on Dec. 31, a family cottage toppled from a bluff in White River Township, west of downtown Montague. At the time that it fell, homeowner Patricia “Tish” Gancer had been attempting to install a rock revetment, and to stabilize the sandy bluff, even as portions of her home leaned over the edge.
“When I see a house fall into the lake, I need to take that as a symptom of what is happening along the entire coastline of Michigan,” she said. This is a problem that doesn’t just impact people on the shoreline, it impacts everyone, Gardner said. But Bonstell said he isn’t aware of another Michigan home so close to toppling as Wright’s.
MichMash: How houses falling into the Great Lakes impacts all of Michigan
Army Corps of Engineers, which issues semi-annual lake level forecasts, has predicted that Lake Michigan may rise farther still in 2020. The state permitting process, facilitated through Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy , is also more involved for homes in designated critical dune or high erosion areas. “If their house is within 75 feet of the bluff and the bluff is eroding, they need to be thinking about what they’re going to do, as far as mitigation, if they want to try and move their house,” Warner said. Warner said that he tries to help connect Muskegon-area homeowners with resources and neighbors.
EGLE processed 836 permits in fiscal year 2019, up from 636 in 2018 and 365 in 2015; most of those were for shoreline protection work, said Nick Assendelft, a spokesperson for EGLE. Most homeowners in the area are doing something, including installing rock walls and fortified seawalls, he said. A major incident can cause damage to surrounding properties or the energy grid, if a property is connected to a gas line when it falls. Dan Dietz’s family business, Deitz House Moving Engineers, has been in Muskegon since 1945. The cycles of Lake Michigan have kept his company busy moving homes away from the shoreline for decades. Mount Pleasant's director of public works and village engineer said he estimates the area has eroded about 50 feet.
Erosion will continue to be a problem
VILLAGE & TOWN OF SOMERS -- For many people living in the Midwest, having a house on the lake is a dream. But one property in the Village & Town of Somersis too close to the water for comfort. It’s just one of the many lakeshore homes disappearing from all the erosion.
My whole family has grown up here,” said shoreline resident, Rita Alton. The Village hopes to eventually receive some financial help from the U.S. The home is one of many on both sides of Lake Michigan being threatened by rapidly eroding shoreline. “The waves wouldn’t be able to get all the way to the bottom of those big dunes if the Lake Michigan levels weren’t at these long-term highs," Andy Dixon, a NWS hydrologist in Grand Rapids, told Michigan Live. Carl lives next door to the now-abandoned house that used to have a sunroom and a back deck. "Now the lake level is so high, it's starting to eat underneath, and everything is falling over," Carl said.
Update: Victim's Name Released in Wexford County Sheriff's Office Death Investigation
Moving a property is a multi-step process that takes at least several months to accomplish, said Dietz. The more complicated the structure, the more time and expense is required. Gezon, the marine contractor, said “the phone is ringing off the hook” at his business, as concerned homeowners seek a solution.
That doesn’t mean property owners have no chance to sell their shrinking properties, although they may not make as much as they would’ve a couple years ago. Vetter said her clients “certainly did not get what they hoped” for 7009 Novak Road, for which the listing price was more than $400,000. It’s unlikely that local, state or federal governments to step in and rebuild the bluffs to protect those homes. Such a venture would cost millions in tax dollars across multiple municipalities, and there’s no guarantee it would be effective — Mother Nature’s persistence usually beats man’s efforts.
'Every day we worry:' Homes on shoreline in Somers in jeopardy of falling into Lake Michigan
Owner of the home, Tish Gancer, says it's been in her family for generations. If you think it looks like it was built too close to the water, it initially wasn't. She tried fixing the problem with the help of contractors the best she could, but it was too late. One neighbor has been forced to destroy their garage because of the receding bluff. Joe Plewka lives next door and he says his family is talking about moving. He declined to state a price range, but said that cost depends on lot size, accessibility of the property, steepness of the bluff, amount of trees on the property, and the construction, size and shape of the home.
The last two years were the wettest in nearly a century for the Great Lakes, virtually ensuring another season of unusually high water levels that could turn dream homes into nightmares. Across the Great Lakes, the inundation has been accompanied by more frequent and intense storms that have stripped away the sandy base of beachfront homes. Rita Alton lives in Manistee and her nearly 70-year old home is perched a few feet from disaster. VILLAGE OF SOMERS — More homes are at risk of falling into Lake Michigan due to rapid erosion along the shoreline.
Racine County previously donated concrete for homeowners hoping to protect the bluff from further erosion. That funding could only be used to protect public property/services, not homes or private buildings. The Village of Mount Pleasant continues to mull over how to deal with bluff erosion impacting homes in its Lake Park neighborhood. A desperate effort by homeowners is now underway to move their houses away from the approaching cliffs or build stone barriers to retain the shifting sands below. "Nobody has seen how quick and how much property has been lost in such a short amount of time with this type of erosion," he said. Then there’s the infrastructure that’s located along the state’s shoreline, including infrastructure that affects the state’s drinking water.
The question to use public funds to tear the home down was put before the Park Township Board of Trustees at an emergency meeting Thursday, according to WOOD TV8. Emergency management officials were surprised the Lakeshore Drive home made it through Thursday evening, Nov. 21, when wind gusts reached peak speeds of 44 mph in Holland. “We’re gonna tear it down today so it doesn’t fall in tonight,” said Carl Perrin, owner of Middleville construction firm Perrin Marine. "The lake has taken 70-pound anchors — ripped them right out of the shoreline. It's broken chains. It's broken ropes," demolition contractor Matt Lucansky told WITI. The Oct. 16 storm ate away up to 30 feet of dune along parts of the shore, the NWS said.
"If someone doesn't do something, Green Bay Road will be Lakeshore Drive." Lucansky was the contractor who tore down a home hanging over the edge of a cliff in Somers. But with each passing wave pounding the side of the bluff, the demolition hasn't stopped. "They've probably lost an additional 30 feet since we started this project," Max Lucansky said.
“If you’re concerned with your house going in, you need to start that process as soon as possible,” Warner said. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Cupp says this summer he’s watched his property get smaller and smaller.
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