'Every day we worry:' Homes on shoreline in Somers in jeopardy of falling into Lake Michigan

Table of Content

• MichMash: How houses falling into the Great Lakes impacts all of Michigan
• Erosion will continue to be a problem
• Update: Victim's Name Released in Wexford County Sheriff's Office Death Investigation
• 'Every day we worry:' Homes on shoreline in Somers in jeopardy of falling into Lake Michigan
• Watch Now: Related Video
• Oceana Co. Home Starts Falling into Lake Michigan
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Much like the federal government, the village has the ability to fund a solution that protects public property, like streets, the public right of way, or utility infrastructure. Village leaders in Mount Pleasant have decided they can no longer wait for the possibility of federal money to help combat bluff erosion in the neighborhood around Lake Park. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. “When you think about wastewater treatment plants, and when you think about drinking water intakes, those are all located along the shoreline, or some body of water, but many are along the shoreline,” Gardner 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.

MichMash: How houses falling into the Great Lakes impacts all of Michigan

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.

EGLE processed 836 permits in fiscal year 2019, up from 636 in 2018 and 365 in 2015; most of those were for shoreline protection work, said Nick Assendelft, a spokesperson for EGLE. Most homeowners in the area are doing something, including installing rock walls and fortified seawalls, he said. A major incident can cause damage to surrounding properties or the energy grid, if a property is connected to a gas line when it falls. Dan Dietz’s family business, Deitz House Moving Engineers, has been in Muskegon since 1945. The cycles of Lake Michigan have kept his company busy moving homes away from the shoreline for decades. Mount Pleasant's director of public works and village engineer said he estimates the area has eroded about 50 feet.

Erosion will continue to be a problem

But he can’t force action; his job is to be on the scene after an emergency has already occurred. The state is on track to receive nearly triple the requests for permits to combat the effects of erosion -- an estimated 1, this year than two years ago. Caledonia is continuing to move to fill empty land with new high-end housing along and near the lakefront. RACINE COUNTY — When Stan Olszewski bought his lakefront property in Mount Pleasant in 2012, the lake was the lowest it had been in years. Noting how the waves of Lake Michigan will never stop, “the instability of the bluff is something you can’t predict,” Vetter said.

Wright and his family enjoyed the lakeshore residence as a vacation home and tried to escape there as often as they could, he said. Furniture and belongings have been moved from the home, and utility connections were severed. As late as Friday morning, emergency officials still weren’t sure if the homeowner was going to tear the home down, Bonstell said. HOLLAND, MI -- A West Michigan shoreline home threatening at any moment to plummet more than 50 feet into Lake Michigan is being demolished Friday. Many homeowners have applied for permits to build seawalls and other protective structures. "Every day we worry about the east storms coming," said Darrel Carl, who owns a home on the lakefront.

Update: Victim's Name Released in Wexford County Sheriff's Office Death Investigation

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.

That doesn’t mean property owners have no chance to sell their shrinking properties, although they may not make as much as they would’ve a couple years ago. Vetter said her clients “certainly did not get what they hoped” for 7009 Novak Road, for which the listing price was more than $400,000. It’s unlikely that local, state or federal governments to step in and rebuild the bluffs to protect those homes. Such a venture would cost millions in tax dollars across multiple municipalities, and there’s no guarantee it would be effective — Mother Nature’s persistence usually beats man’s efforts.

'Every day we worry:' Homes on shoreline in Somers in jeopardy of falling into Lake Michigan

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.

The last two years were the wettest in nearly a century for the Great Lakes, virtually ensuring another season of unusually high water levels that could turn dream homes into nightmares. Across the Great Lakes, the inundation has been accompanied by more frequent and intense storms that have stripped away the sandy base of beachfront homes. Rita Alton lives in Manistee and her nearly 70-year old home is perched a few feet from disaster. VILLAGE OF SOMERS — More homes are at risk of falling into Lake Michigan due to rapid erosion along the shoreline.

Racine County previously donated concrete for homeowners hoping to protect the bluff from further erosion. That funding could only be used to protect public property/services, not homes or private buildings. The Village of Mount Pleasant continues to mull over how to deal with bluff erosion impacting homes in its Lake Park neighborhood. A desperate effort by homeowners is now underway to move their houses away from the approaching cliffs or build stone barriers to retain the shifting sands below. "Nobody has seen how quick and how much property has been lost in such a short amount of time with this type of erosion," he said. Then there’s the infrastructure that’s located along the state’s shoreline, including infrastructure that affects the state’s drinking water.

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.

"If someone doesn't do something, Green Bay Road will be Lakeshore Drive." Lucansky was the contractor who tore down a home hanging over the edge of a cliff in Somers. But with each passing wave pounding the side of the bluff, the demolition hasn't stopped. "They've probably lost an additional 30 feet since we started this project," Max Lucansky said.

He estimates that his company dropped 6,000 tons of rock in 2019 all up and down Lake Michigan’s east coast, with five or six projects in Muskegon County. The City of Racine plans to spend $1.5 million to build five new single-family houses on vacant lots in diverse city neighborhoods. The ultimate buyer, who declined to speak with The Journal Times on the record, fits that demographic.