What’s to blame for the weekend flooding? Climate change and aging infrastructure

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(WXYZ) The fallout from the floods has continued since the weekend. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer blames climate change and underfunded infrastructure for the devastating flooding.

A local expert steps in, saying what we saw last weekend is not surprising.

Heavy rain isn’t an unusual sight or sound, but rain like the one we saw this weekend wasn’t always considered normal, according to a climate and engineering expert at the University of Michigan. .

“When you really start to see precipitation deviating from its all-time high, it’s in the mid-90s. With increased temperature, it’s able to hold more moisture, so when it rains, it rains hard.” , said Professor Richard Rude.

But for a rainy night causing miles of standing water on the freeway, Rude said Detroit’s subway infrastructure also plays a role.

“In a lot of cases they’re getting old and in a lot of cases they’re not being well maintained as well,” Rude said.

At a press conference Monday, Gary Brown, director of the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department, said the flooding was not a maintenance issue, but a global warming issue that caused a capacity issue.

“We are seeing that infrastructure across the country will not be able to meet the needs of climate change in 2021. It is real. It is the confluence of underinvestment and climate change,” said Brown.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer used a road repair platform, which required upgrading sewage drainage and other infrastructure that created costly and devastating problems for residents.

Rude said that in the future we need to reduce our risks and increase our resilience.

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