CADILLAC \u2014 Beth Klimp felt a mixture of emotions while walking around her neighborhood to see the flooding this week.<\/p>\n
On one hand, she is thankful that only her home\u2019s basement has been affected by floodwater. On the other hand, she was heartbroken to see other people\u2019s homes sitting in the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know how to process it,\u201d Klimp said. \u201cIt\u2019s just overwhelming. It\u2019s heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klimp and her family have lived in their home on the south side of Lake Mitchell for 27 years. During that time, she has never seen flooding this severe.<\/p>\n
She explained that it all started with a small amount of water entering her home\u2019s walkout basement. Klimp said she and her husband thought their sump pump was failing and decided to replace it on April 14.<\/p>\n
As it kept raining, more water got into the basement, and the couple started tearing out the carpet and padding. This past weekend\u2019s rain showers brought water right up to the basement\u2019s walkout level.<\/p>\n
Klimp said a neighbor helped her husband build a berm, before they used a pump to remove the water. The couple\u2019s focus has been on protecting their home\u2019s drywall from the water to minimize the damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had my moments of shedding some tears, but this too shall pass,\u201d Klimp said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing the best we can and hoping and praying for sunshine for the next few days. I feel bad for people who have it worse than we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over on the south side of Lake Cadillac on Michigan Avenue, Cadillac resident Wendy Vrieze is also dealing with flooding in her house\u2019s basement. She and her family have lived in the house for 10 years.<\/p>\n
Vrieze\u2019s troubles started on Easter Sunday after their basement flooded due to a failing sump pump. She got a new sump pump, but when it turned on, the force of it blew apart a vent pipe in her kitchen.<\/p>\n
She said her kitchen ended up with sewage in it, and the family spent the week fixing up everything.<\/p>\n
After going away for the weekend, Vrieze and her family returned home and found puddles of water in their basement again. She said they used a shop-vac to suck the water up.<\/p>\n
Later, when they came back down to the basement, Vrieze said they found it completely flooded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lived here for 10 years, and there\u2019s only one spot in our basement that has gotten wet at different times over those 10 years,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, our entire basement continues to take on water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Different family and friends have been helping remove items from the basement. Vrieze said they\u2019ve also been working tirelessly to pump out the water all week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just overwhelming and exhausting,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s also very emotional to realize that now there are so many people who are getting it far worse than us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite her family\u2019s situation, Vrieze is looking at the positive side of things. She said they have been blessed by others who have stepped up to help in their time of need.<\/p>\n
For example, Vrieze said a neighbor took a break from pumping water out of his crawlspace to help her family move items out of their basement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been kind of a unique bonding opportunity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Tony Osborn and his wife Kelly have seen people driving around their neighborhood looking to help others in need. The couple lives on the backside of Lake Mitchell, near a closed-off road.<\/p>\n
He said their home\u2019s crawl space is full of water, and they\u2019ve been pumping it out every now and again. The siding at the bottom of his garage started to lift from water hitting against it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bad, but it has been worse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One issue Osborn and his neighbors have been dealing with is vehicles driving too fast through the flooded road. He said the vehicles have been pushing water up to his garage.<\/p>\n
Osborn added that a neighbor\u2019s garage door has been pushed inward from the waves hitting it. He has been imploring drivers to slow down if they have to drive through the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have to go through, just go real slow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As people wait for the water to recede, Osborn has been trying to reassure people that they\u2019ll make it through OK. Having lived in the Cadillac area for close to 40 years, he said things have been worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happens,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s part of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klimp has leaned on her faith in God throughout her family\u2019s experience. She said she believes God is still in control even if it doesn\u2019t seem like it at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have hope,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we\u2019re in despair. This too shall pass.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CADILLAC \u2014 Beth Klimp felt a mixture of emotions while walking around her neighborhood to see the flooding…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":741702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[23],"tags":[305872,32205,23748,746,8580,305874,305870,36379,305871,159,305873,67,132,68,305875,305869],"class_list":["post-741701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-beth-klimp","tag-cadillac","tag-emergency-management","tag-environment","tag-flooding","tag-kelly-osborn","tag-missaukee-county","tag-osceola-county","tag-road-commission","tag-science","tag-tony-osborn","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wendy-vrieze","tag-wexford-county"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116439374018808149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}