By STAN MADDUX Indiana Correspondent LA PORTE, Ind. — Heavy rains coupled with a rapid snow melt on frozen ground caused rivers to spill over, and record flooding, in northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan. Some homes and businesses had to be evacuated in places like Goshen, South Bend and Niles, where the Elkhart and St. Joseph rivers set record highs, according to the National Weather Service. People were also forced to higher ground in Plymouth where the Yellow River rose to just a foot below record level. A couple of grocery stores and even a movie theatre and hospital were partially inundated or surrounded by water. Three horses and a llama had to be coaxed to higher ground at Lake Station, in the far northwestern corner of Indiana. Another nine horses in that same community were safely pulled from a flooded stable. Many acres of farmland were also flooded, creating worries about erosion, particularly on land without cover crops, and keeping dry bedding for wet, muddy cattle coming in for shelter. “Keeping them dry and out of the mud is a bit of a challenge when you get these kind of conditions,” said Matt Shafer, who has about 90 head of beef cattle on his farm near La Crosse, where he also grows corn and soybeans. Carl Netzer, a Kingsford Heights area corn and soybean farmer, crossed over the Kankakee River on his way to work at Stillwell Farm Fertilizers near La Porte. He’s used to seeing the river first over its banks in March or April, but, “I was surprised at how high it was already,” he noted. Gene Matzat, an educator with the extension office in La Porte, said temperatures going from the 60s when the rains hit, back to below freezing quickly, created a need for cattle to have access to more food and water to help recover from the extra energy expended trudging in ice and frozen mud. The drastic weather caused frost laws throughout the region to go into effect to keep heavy trucks off rural roads softened and undermined by the high water and ice melting beneath the ground. LaPorte County Highway Department Superintendent Bob Young said about a half-dozen drivers were issued permits to haul right after the Frost Law was imposed, then after realizing just how soupy conditions had become, an indefinite freeze on hauling permits was put into place. Sewage treatment plants unable to keep up with the rapid influx of runoff had releases of untreated wastewater. In La Porte, it was the fourth time in 10 years the intake had to bypass the plant and go directly into Travis Ditch, which empties into the Kankakee River, said La Porte Waste Water Superintendent Jerry Jackson. He said the 30 million-gallon storage lagoon completely filled up. Typically, the lagoon has more than enough capacity to hold excess water from storms before being pumped into the plant for treatment once precipitation begins to dissipate. “We could not hold all of the rain because there’s so much of it,” he explained The swollen Kankakee River also put a temporary stop to the city of La Porte draining its lakes. The 20-year old gravity drain keeps Pine, Stone and other lakes in the city from flooding when levels begin creeping up. Lake water from the several miles-long drain eventually makes its way into the Kankakee River, and use of the drain cannot resume until river levels return to normal, Jackson said. |
