Flooding is expected to continue across the area with the Kalamazoo River not cresting in Allegan until possibly late Saturday. Over three inches of rain has already fallen but for the most part, the rain has ended although runoff will allow creeks and small streams to continue to rise.
Allegan City workers and Allegan County jail trustees were preparing for flooding by starting to put sandbags in place on Wednesday near the city dam in the Mill District, which experienced severe flooding in 2008.
City manager Joel Dye said the dam was just inspected and is safe. The riverbank stabilization project behind Perrigo headquarters is also stable.
The Allegan County Emergency Management Command Center is staged below the dam. Around the river bend at Ace Hardware, bags of product were being moved away from the riverbank to higher ground and Jaycee Park is closed with one third of the park underwater.
According to NOAA river forecasts, the Kalamazoo River flood level is 9 feet (at NOAA’s nearest guage station in Comstock). At noon Thursday the stage level was 10.05 feet . The river is to crest at 11.4 feet by 1 a.m. Saturday. Allegan is about one day behind Comstock’s crest level, according to DPW director Aaron Haskin, putting the crest level in Allegan at about 1 a.m. Sunday. 10 feet is moderate flooding. 11 feet is major flooding, so this could be a record flood.
In 2008, the crest level reached 10.43 feet, which is between moderate and major flood stage. Even so, the river did not top the city dam.
The Kalamazoo River at New Richmond is forecasted to crest from 7 a.m. Friday at 18.4 feet. The flood stage level is 17 feet, which is the minor flood level. The moderate flooding stage is at 19 feet and major flood stage is 21 feet.
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