The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is giving the city of Midland $5.5 million to help it recover from last year’s devastating flood.
In May of 2020, two dam failures helped create a 500 year flood event that inundated parts of Gladwin and Midland counties. The swollen Tittabawassee River caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, and forced thousands to flee their homes. Some have yet to return.
Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman says the money is coming from The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Declared Disaster Recovery Fund.
She says Midland officials can use the money to facilitate natural infrastructure to reduce future flooding, reconstruct infrastructure with resilient and green features, and retrofit low- and moderate-income homes to repair damage while increasing energy efficiency and resilience.
“With this funding, Midland will have the resources it needs to improve the community’s climate resilience and the lives of those most-impacted by the flooding, particularly low- and moderate-income families and individuals,” says Todman.
Midland officials plan to use the HUD money to help pay for a property buy-back program and upgrade the city’s pumping stations.
City Manager Brad Kaye says Midland is working on a new master plan in response to the flood.
“It will be our guiding light towards not only future development but the future activities in the city as well,” says Kaye.
Despite the federal aid that has flowed into the region since the May 2020 flood, Midland Mayor Maureen Donker says there’s much more that needs to be done.
“It will be years for us to....get back to where we were,” says Donker.
