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Water levels on the lake are 3 feet higher than the long-term average for October. “Throughout my life, I’ve seen a lot of high-water cycles,” he said. Things quieted down in the ’90s and 2000s and through the low water years of the 2010s. Immediately to the north of Gancer’s property, another house appears to partially hang from the edge of the bluff. Gezon said his team is also working with that homeowner, but added that if the earth beneath that house shifts before true winter hits and the ground freezes, it could fall too. Bluff erosion along the Caledonia shoreline can be seen on Feb. 3, 2020, from the cockpit of local certified financial planner Michael Haubrich's light-sport airplane.
The home Cotter and his wife, Mary Carole, recently built in Ferrysburg, on the lake's eastern shore, is also threatened by the erosion. Storm-driven waves have washed away 20 to 30 feet of dunes in some places. As the wind blasts and the waves roll, the abandoned house continues to linger above the water. Over the past few days, one room of the house has been claimed by the lake. “It’s not a resort, it’s just me, it’s just a family cottage.” she said. She's heartbroken to lose the place that held so many family memories.
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The question to use public funds to tear the home down was put before the Park Township Board of Trustees at an emergency meeting Thursday, according to WOOD TV8. Emergency management officials were surprised the Lakeshore Drive home made it through Thursday evening, Nov. 21, when wind gusts reached peak speeds of 44 mph in Holland. “We’re gonna tear it down today so it doesn’t fall in tonight,” said Carl Perrin, owner of Middleville construction firm Perrin Marine. "The lake has taken 70-pound anchors — ripped them right out of the shoreline. It's broken chains. It's broken ropes," demolition contractor Matt Lucansky told WITI. The Oct. 16 storm ate away up to 30 feet of dune along parts of the shore, the NWS said.
The soil underneath the house is constantly shifting and could give way, similar to how avalanches on mountains can be set off by a small stimulus that triggers a chain reaction. DeGroot said a timeline on possible emergency measures by the village was tough to speculate on, but the hope is to do something "as soon as we can." DeGroot added homeowners in the area have received authorization from the DNR to do emergency repairs on their own.
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Now, people with beachfront property are in a battle to save their homes. In late October, the agency announced that it would begin expediting permits for shoreline protection work, especially for properties in most immediate danger or that pose a public safety threat. Since this policy change, about 65 percent of permits are now processed within five days, according to Assendelft, down from the standard 60 to 90 days.
“If you’re concerned with your house going in, you need to start that process as soon as possible,” Warner said. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Cupp says this summer he’s watched his property get smaller and smaller.
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VILLAGE & TOWN OF SOMERS -- For many people living in the Midwest, having a house on the lake is a dream. But one property in the Village & Town of Somersis too close to the water for comfort. It’s just one of the many lakeshore homes disappearing from all the erosion.
Owner of the home, Tish Gancer, says it's been in her family for generations. If you think it looks like it was built too close to the water, it initially wasn't. She tried fixing the problem with the help of contractors the best she could, but it was too late. One neighbor has been forced to destroy their garage because of the receding bluff. Joe Plewka lives next door and he says his family is talking about moving. He declined to state a price range, but said that cost depends on lot size, accessibility of the property, steepness of the bluff, amount of trees on the property, and the construction, size and shape of the home.
Center, a house on Novak Road sits precariously close to the bluff's edge. Southeastern Wisconsin isn’t the only region along the Great Lakes caught off guard by high water levels and a shrinking shoreline. At the Novak Road property, after last year’s storm, there was a small gate standing a couple feet from the bluff edge. A few weeks later, Vetter said the gate was nowhere to be found, likely consumed by the lake. With water levels expected to get even higher the clock is ticking as the county tries to work with residents to fix this growing problem.
He’s currently seeking an estimate of how much it will cost to protect the bluff and the house on it. In addition to listings of a lakeside ranch home that needs some safety measures, she started listing the property as vacant land that just so happens to have a house on it. Other potential buyers figured there would need to be another massive storm like the one in early 2020 to decimate the bluff, but that’s not necessarily the case.
Army Corps of Engineers, which issues semi-annual lake level forecasts, has predicted that Lake Michigan may rise farther still in 2020. The state permitting process, facilitated through Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy , is also more involved for homes in designated critical dune or high erosion areas. “If their house is within 75 feet of the bluff and the bluff is eroding, they need to be thinking about what they’re going to do, as far as mitigation, if they want to try and move their house,” Warner said. Warner said that he tries to help connect Muskegon-area homeowners with resources and neighbors.
More homes are at risk of falling into Lake Michigan due to rapid erosion along the shoreline. “Coming out of my mouth, I imagine it’s going to sound a bit prejudiced, but I think the only solution is picking up a house and moving it from the lakeshore,” he said. Shortly before midnight on Dec. 31, a family cottage toppled from a bluff in White River Township, west of downtown Montague. At the time that it fell, homeowner Patricia “Tish” Gancer had been attempting to install a rock revetment, and to stabilize the sandy bluff, even as portions of her home leaned over the edge.
And get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox. When Tish Gancer looks out at the waters of Lake Michigan, she sees the final resting place of her house. Built by her grandfather, most of the lakefront cottage fell off a cliff on New Year's Eve, leaving only a bit of foundation.
