How Walker Michigan Prepares For Flash Floods And Grand River Flooding

Flooding in Walker, Michigan isn’t one-size-fits-all, and that misunderstanding can lead to costly surprises. We sit down with City Engineer Scott Conners to break down the two flood problems residents actually see: sudden flash flooding that overwhelms streets and catch basins during high-intensity rain, and slower Grand River flooding that can be forecast days in advance as water moves through the watershed.

We get specific about what the City of Walker does for flood mitigation and stormwater management, from spring inspections of the Turner Avenue flood wall to real-time decision-making when storms are on the way. Scott explains why a “100-year storm” isn’t a perfect 24-hour rain event in real life, and how bursts like two inches in two hours can push storm sewers past capacity. You’ll also hear how Public Works crews prepare by clearing catch basin grates, removing debris, and opening clogged pipes, plus how National Weather Service river forecasts guide warnings to businesses that may need to lift equipment before water reaches the road.

We also cover what you can do at home to reduce localized flooding risk: keep ditches and drainage paths clear, avoid blowing leaves into streets, and don’t pile sticks where runoff can carry them into pipes. We talk about how new development is required to use detention ponds and infiltration to control runoff, and why flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program can still matter even outside a mapped floodplain. If this helped you, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, share it with a neighbor, and leave a review so more residents can find it.

If you have comments about this podcast, or ideas for future episodes, please email us at PODCAST@WALKER.CITY

Transcript

Welcome To Maiden Walker

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to Maiden Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories, and the ideas shaping our community. From local innovators to everyday change makers, we're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work, and grow. Here's your host, Nicole DiDonato.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Flooding in Walker isn't one size fits all. Sometimes we get those quick, heavy downpours. Other times it's a little more gradual and the Grand River rises. But that's why we have City Engineer Scott Connors to join us for this episode to talk about flooding, what the city's done to mitigate it, the types we see around the area, and what residents can do to kind of help themselves. Thank you, Scott, for being here. Welcome. Yeah, perfect day to talk about this. Looking a little overcast, but uh tell us the two types of flooding that we generally see around the city every year.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Well, I think the big complaints that we get are are the first off is the flash flooding that we see, like in a neighborhood, if the streets overwhelmed and the water gets up over the catch basins in the road, uh, slows down vehicles. Um, as that's just as the name uh suggests. It's flashy. It happens right away, it usually subsides in a few minutes. Um, the other kind of flooding that we get along the Grand River, we can really forecast and see coming. And it's a result of large rainfalls in the Grand River watershed. If you look upstream, you've got Lansing, uh Portland, further up at the very headwaters, the Grand River is Jackson. So if you get a big storm out there, a lot of times we don't see the impacts to that for two or three or even four days.

Flood Wall And Seasonal Inspections

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Got it. Okay. So then what does the city do to kind of uh prepare for that type of?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Well, we actually got a flood wall along Turner Avenue that um we watch uh it's a it's an integrated fret flood wall with the city Grand Rapids system. And so we keep track of that, we do inspections on that in the spring. Uh we go out and check and make sure all the outlets are working uh and and are effective. Um but along Turner and along North Park Street, those are some of the areas that we see both the flashy floods and the long-term uh more uh late rising Grand Rapids flood or Grand River floods.

What A 100-Year Storm Means

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Yeah. And uh earlier this season um we saw uh just a heavy downpour, maybe some spots that uh flooded in Walker that we don't typically see year after year. So these 100-year floods kind of changing, it seems like, changing in terms.

Public Works Prep Before Downpours

SPEAKER_00 2:20

It is, and there's a lot of debate about that. Uh in Grant in the Grand Rapids area, we look at a 24-hour, 100-year storm as uh having six inches of rain, six point two five inches of rain over twenty four hours. But that's evenly distributed in a scientific and theoretical world. We've never gotten a perfect hundred-year storm. It's impossible. Uh we'll end up with uh uh flashier events, uh sometimes a long sustained event, but never for 24 hours straight. So the storms that we had a few weeks ago, uh, we got about two inches of rain in two hours, which is a very high intensity. And on top of that, we ended up with about three total inches of rain, but it was spread probably over four or five hours throughout the evening. But those two inches are so intense, it overwhelms the storm sewer systems in the streets, some of the backyard ditches, and so then we see that localized flooding.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Yeah, and many people may not realize, but when there are these these types of storms, you and our public works crews, you guys are out driving around. It doesn't matter what time of night, 2 a.m., whenever it is, you're out kind of keeping an eye on these things in the dark.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah, and that's a big part of our job too, is to forecast that. And in this last event, I was really proud of our guys in Public Works. They could see this coming. And uh one of our senior members back there, Pat Poss, was able to kind of pull the trigger to get all of our crews out the day before to clean off catch basin grates, to get rid of sticks and leaves, uh, to clean out uh pipes that may have been plugged and basically open the system up so we didn't see uh any impediments that would cause even more localized flooding.

Forecasting Tools And Business Alerts

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Sure, sure. And what other types of tools and such do you use to for monitoring this type of flooding?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

The National Weather Uh Service has some great tools that we look at uh to look at the river levels, and and we use that uh extensively in forecasting what we may have coming. And a few years back we had a lot of flooding uh that was Grand River related. Um you can monitor that, you can see it again two or three or four days in advance, and uh the National Weather Service provides predicted levels. And um, so we'll look at that, and if we see a situation that might uh uh impact some of our industrial businesses perhaps on on Turner, what we've done previously is we've gone out and told them in advance, hey, it's it's time to get your expensive equipment off the floor in these areas. Um, you may want to put stuff up on blocks, uh, you may want to you know move some things around because we're liable to see uh upwards of a foot or two of water in the road and in some of those businesses that have been there for a long time, even in their uh the floors of their manufacturing facilities.

What Residents Can Do Now

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Okay. So we were seeing what the with the city does and that yeah, um being proactive and doing the outreach to businesses and such. What can residents typically do to uh help themselves and reduce that risk?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

I think a really big part of that is to keep track of the drainage that's on your property. So if you've got uh storm sewer in your backyard or catch basins where the surface water goes, or even a ditch, um, make sure that you keep those things clean. And so if they need to be mowed, you should you know do that on a regular basis. If you've got uh leaves that you want to blow or sticks that you want to put up in a pile, don't put them back there where they're gonna wash in and plug up a pipe or a drain, because that just makes the whole system uh suffer at that point. And everybody upstream has to deal with higher water until that plug can be uh removed.

How New Development Manages Stormwater

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Maybe a misconception too that we hear is whenever there's a new development going on in Walker, how will that impact flooding other folks their properties, things like that?

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Aaron Powell Yeah, I think if you go back into uh development that's post-World War II, um we would just throw up developments and not think about the stormwater. But every time you take down a forested area and put in a paved and rooftop area, it changes how the water gets back into the ground. And so we see less uh infiltration. And with that, you have more outlet, more uh outflow from those sites. Uh we've learned in the 70s and 80s and especially now that it's important for us to put in controls to help mitigate that. So now we put in things like detention ponds. We look for ways that we can put water back into the ground through infiltration. So now we have to look at the kind of soils that are on a site when it develops. Um but I guess overall we've got an ordinance here in Walker and all through Kent County and our neighboring counties that's a very comprehensive set of rules so that when a new development comes in, we can make those mitigations. And oftentimes we can even take the peak off the existing storms and make things just a little bit better.

Flood Insurance And Higher Risk Areas

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Well, good information to know. But when it comes to flood insurance, is that something that our Walker residents are actually eligible to try? They are.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Okay. And we get a lot of questions about that. So we are part of the National Flood Insurance Program, NFIP, which is a federal program that allows uh insurance agents to then sell flood protection to our residents. Uh if we're not a part of that program, then the insurance agents aren't obligated to provide that insurance. So even if you're outside of a floodplain, if you're worried about localized flooding, you can still go get that flood insurance and have protections for your basement, for your water heaters and furnaces and critical items that wouldn't be available if we weren't following those federal guidelines as a city.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

And um are the as far as uh that flood insurance or certain areas where there's flooding, is there more specific parts in Walker that is more prone to it? If or if people move into that area, they know that they are part of a floodplain?

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Aaron Powell Yeah, I think a lot of the older neighborhoods, and again the post-World War II neighborhoods where there was no thought or care given about stormwater, it was just send it downstream as quick as you can and and uh and get back on with your life. Um, those areas uh are are a little bit more troublesome. So the older neighborhoods, the newer neighborhoods traditionally have uh storm source systems that are sized appropriately. We have detention, uh, we have uh multiple uh you know redundancy in our catch basin system. So if one plugs, it's gonna flow into another one without damaging a home. And then we also take great care with our building department to make sure that homes are built at the proper elevation. Uh in the past, a lot of times somebody might look at a house and say, Um, I'd like to have a walkout basement there because it's worth more money and more fun for me. Um, but then they lower that elevation and they get it too far down where maybe it is subject to uh to flooding.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

So when you are meeting with developers too and looking at because we we do have some new neighborhoods and developments that will be going up, especially in the next 10 years, even or sooner than that, what are some of the considerations that you guys talk through? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Well, I think we take a look at a lot of different things. We look at the uh the Kent County Drain Commissioners uh system because there's a lot of areas that are served by uh larger drains that are part of Kent County Drain Association or Drain Commission. Um we also take a look at uh previous uh uh issues where we had localized flooding, and we try to mitigate that as best we can. So if somebody wants to go in and build in an area that we know has had flooding, we make sure that they compensate for any kind of flood storage that they'll be eliminating with their project. So oftentimes they have to build much more detention or a floodplain kind of an area where water uh that sat before can sit again, in addition to all the additional water that they'll be creating. Aaron Powell Yeah.

Key Takeaways And Contact Info

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Very good information to know that these precautions are being um you know put into place and uh taken by everyone involved. So, what is uh you know a big takeaway that residents can take away from this podcast and the information that you're giving about the flooding?

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Aaron Powell Well, I think the the big takeaway maybe is that everybody can chip in and everybody can take a role in this. Don't push your leaves out into the street. Uh don't push the leaves and sticks into your backyard where there might be some drainage that goes from side to side or into a ditch. Um and then um just kind of watch the weather. I mean, it that's what we do. I mean, we have to keep a close eye on that. There's nights where uh as tonight, as we look out the window and see some storm, stormy weather and potential damage, we have to uh be aware of that and and and cognizant of it so that we can plan ahead and take some mitigation if we can by keeping things uh open and unobstructed.

unknown 9:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Well, really appreciate the conversation, the great information as well. Thank you so much, Scott, for everything she offered. All right, and we appreciate you tuning in to this podcast episode.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Maiden Walker Podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walker.city. Maiden Walker is the official podcast of the city of Walker, Michigan. You can find Maiden Walker wherever you get your podcasts.