Photo by Stephen McGee

By Louis Aguilar

Thousands of Detroit residents, businesses, churches, nonprofits, libraries and others  will likely need months to recover from the disastrous flooding caused by record rainfall two weeks ago and aging water infrastructure.

It was the second time a so-called 100-year rain event occurred in the past decade. The last time was August 2014. Heavy rains in metro Detroit have caused massive flooding in homes, streets and freeways at least four times since 2016.

The unprecedented amounts of rain are overwhelming an aging public infrastructure.

“We clearly can’t go on like this,” said William Shuster, chair of Wayne State University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. “The infrastructure was built for a different time and place, and that’s changed. We are not keeping up.”

To understand the challenges that the region faces, here are various studies, surveys and recent media interviews that provide facts and analysis.

For the rest of the story, visit BridgeDetroit’s website.