Cars under water after part of S. Division Avenue floods

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Storms dumped rain on parts of West Michigan early Monday, flooding part of busy S. Division Avenue at the Grand Rapids-Wyoming border.

A few drivers were forced to abandon their cars at the underpass on S. Division just north of 28th Street as the water rose. The intersection was shut down for a time so crews could deal with the flooding, but it later reopened.

The underpass is prone to flooding, but it’s not usually as bad as it was Monday.

“That area has a lot of impermeable surfaces, a lot of concrete, a lot of asphalt, so that water doesn’t seep into the ground. It tends to rest there until it can flow through the pipes to the Grand River,” James Ouzts, the environmental services manager for the city of Grand Rapids, said.

He said said the scene at S. Division was the only street flooding its workers were called to Monday morning. It blamed debris blocking catch basins and keeping the water from draining away.

“There is small sticks, leaves, grass clippings, stuff like that that impact the storm drains,” Ouzts explained.

He called on area business owners to help clear catch basins before heavy storms.

Later Monday, crews were working to restore the stormwater pumping station near the intersection.

“That stormwater pumping station isn’t actually apart of the city of Grand Rapids. So it belongs to a neighboring community. We are working collaboratively with them to alleviate the issue,” Ouzts said.

The Michigan Department of Transportation, which manages 28th Street infrastructure because it’s a state trunkline (M-11), said a plan is in the works to modernize that pump station, but the federal grant money to pay for construction doesn’t kick in until the next fiscal year. Right now, MDOT is in the design phase.

“In the meantime, we are working with the county road commission and the city of G.R. to clean out the catch basins and improve the drainage where we can on M-11 as well as Division Avenue,” MDOT spokesman John Richard said.

Drivers are reminded to never go through standing water.

“Be aware that you can’t judge the depth. Please don’t drive through it. Just try an alternative route,” Ouzts said.

The heaviest rain overnight was along the I-96/I-196 corridor, with rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour.

Another round of storms is expected to move in Monday night into Tuesday, bringing more heavy rain and the chance of damaging winds.

Allegan, Barry, Calhoun, Cass, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Kent, Muskegon, Ottawa, and Van Buren counties were expected to be under a flood watch starting at 9 p.m. Monday, with the National Weather service warning that rain runoff could flood rivers, streams and low-lying areas. Branch and St. Joseph counties were under a river flood warning until Friday morning.

—Storm Team 8 meteorologist Matt Kirkwood contributed to this report.

*Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the day of the flooding. It was Monday. We regret the error, which has been fixed.

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