SOUTH HAVEN, MI — Property owners are demolishing or relocating their homes and building boulder walls to block Lake Michigan waves as shoreline erosion creeps inland, swallowing bluffs and buildings along the way.
In Casco Township, just north of South Haven, a staircase fell off a bluff and toppled into the lake. Several other smaller structures have also been hit, as homeowners and officials monitor the water’s destructive force and try to predict what it could take next.
Homeowners and government officials fear the stairs are just the first step, and that more damage is still to come. Multiple counties and several local lawmakers have requested assistance from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office in handling the erosion fallout.
Allegan County Emergency Management/Homeland Security Director Scott Corbin said more than 100 homes are at risk, in varying degrees. Officials have categorized the homes by severity based on how close they are to the edge of the bluff, including any homes within 100 feet.
The owners of a house at 2268 Lakeshore Drive in Casco Township decided to demolish the home before it went over the edge, Corbin said. Standing mere feet from the drop-off, the home was demolished beginning Jan. 20, and crews were wrapping up demolition the next day as well.
“These shorelines are very unpredictable,” Corbin said. Factors like weather and surface water erosion play a role in how fast shore erosion occurs, he said.
“It’s very difficult to estimate,” Corbin said.
The ongoing erosion has property owners concerned from the southernmost point in Berrien County, to places farther north such as Muskegon County, where one homeowner is experiencing the problem that everyone wants to avoid.
Shortly before midnight on Dec. 31, a home toppled from the top of a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan in Muskegon County’s White River Township.
Some of the problems caused by erosion in Southwest Michigan have been seen for some time. A sinkhole opened up in October 2019, forcing a permanent road closure along Lakeshore Drive and cutting off road access to a dozen or more homes, Corbin said.
South Haven Area Emergency Services Executive Director Ronald Wise said his agency is in an advisory role, and has been measuring the distance between homes and the edge of the bluffs, keeping a close eye on how quickly the bluffs erode.
“If we see a house and enough erosion has occurred and its foundation starts being exposed, we have to have a serious talk about the stability of the house to say how long is this house going to stay stable,” he said.
Septic tanks and drinking water wells near the bluffs could also be an issue for lakefront properties as the erosion pushes inland, he said. There are also environmental ramifications when a building falls over a bluff, Wise said, and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy would require owners to pay for any resulting cleanup.
Some municipalities are worried about the possibility of property owners walking away from their properties entirely because of high water, Wise said.
Township officials are in contact with a few property owners and are monitoring any homes that are close to going over the edge, Casco Township Supervisor Allen Overheiser said.
Some are being moved back from the shoreline now, like one home in Glen Haven Shores being split into three sections and moved to separate lots, Wise said.
“They lost a lot of property,” he said.
Officials inspect the bluffs, but having snow on the ground hampers their progress, as it can be dangerous to get close to the edge, Wise said.
“The bluff is disappearing so quickly,” Overheiser said, saying many locals he has spoken to said they have never seen anything like it.
The township’s shoreline does not have the river surge issues seen elsewhere — like the flooding in South Haven last year — where a swelling river can more quickly increase water levels. But its many tall bluffs overlooking the lake are being eroded from the bottom up, leading to material higher up collapsing and bringing the bluff edge closer to homes and other properties, Overheiser said. Township officials recently recommended a property owner remove a shed that is now just feet from the edge.
Beyond the concerns of private property owners, concerns about the impact of high water also high in the city of South Haven, where officials have received a report that details $16 million in potential improvements to address the problem. The city council will hear a report about the impacts at a meeting in February.
Also on MLive:
Cleanup completed on collapsed Lake Michigan cottage before big storm hits
Counties on Lake Michigan shoreline seek governor’s help with high water ‘emergency’
Move houses near Lake Michigan bluffs or lose them, experts warn
