A predictable catastrophe in Michigan

Everyone saw this coming

The Sanford Dam.
(Image credit: Illustrated | REUTERS)

How do you declare a state of emergency when a similar order is already in effect? What does it mean to tell people to shelter indefinitely with friends and relations whom it had previously been a misdemeanor even to visit? How do you enforce social distancing in makeshift shelters, or put evacuees up in hotels that in many cases were already closed?

These are some of the questions that thousands of people will learn the answers to in central Michigan, where flooding has led to the failure of multiple dams along the Tittabawassee River. Midland, the largest municipality in the county of the same name, is home to a population of about 40,000 and, not exactly encouragingly for a city that is expected to find itself in as much as nine feet of water in parts, Dow Chemical. The main Dow plant is, thank goodness, being protected by the National Guard.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.