Flood Story: 'My Yard is Currently a Marshland'

For the third time in less than two years, intense rains had my basement taking on water – and had me down there furiously bailing it into my washer sink as fast as I could.

Throughout the township residents struggled yesterday with the effects of mass flooding. The deluge – which submerged portions of both Canton Center and Ford Roads – was the result of intense and prolonged rains.

“In 27 years I’ve never seen water over Ford Road and Canton Center Road,” said .

My yard is currently a marshland. It backs up to a neighborhood park and slopes to the street. So, whenever the rain builds up, water flows right under the concrete slab under my family room floor. My house is more than 35 years old (it was constructed in 1974), so the aluminum ventilation system under my back room is likely deteriorated.

Because the water has nowhere to go, it forces itself through the cracks or holes in my ventillation system, filling it up. From there, water flows downward toward the furnace, leaking out from every joint beyond the wall, streaming into the furnace. It was so bad on Wednesday I had to use a Shop Vac to suck water out through the vents in the floor of my family room. 

According to Casari, the flooding is in large part the result of the relative lack of absorbency of Canton’s subsoil. He said that Canton is “primarily a top soil-on-top-of-clay community,” which means that the ground can only take on so much water before it saturates.

Once the clay takes on what little water it can, remaining water just rests on the surface. Then it builds up and flooding occurs. The township sewer drainage system is designed to handle the runoff, but only to an extent.

Casari said that the system is set up to handle routine drainage or typical rain runoff. But, he said, every so often a storm dumps more water than the sewers can handle.

More than 10,000 years ago, Casari said, Canton was the bottom of glacial Lake Whittlesey, which was one of the earliest sources of water in the state, one that ultimately led to the creation of the Great Lakes.

Typically, he said, there is a layer of sand between the clay in the ground and the top layer of soil. In western portions of Canton Township – closer to Ridge Road, which was the shoreline of Lake Whittlesey – there is sand in the ground, and it tends to flood less.  A series of creeks on Canton's west side side help handle runoff.

Today, the roads are finally clear, and the yards are beginning to follow suit. But, Casari said, that could change. He said that the township is still under flood watch, and that if we do get heavy rains again we could see more damage.

"As of right now the roads are open," he said. "We are okay, as long as we don't get the 1-1/2 inches we are supposed to get between noon and tonight."

The latest National Weather Service forecast calls for late-night thunderstorms delivering .75 inches of rain.