Damage from flood lingers Up North, as costs mount for schools, governments

April floods washed out roads and swept away bridges and dams across half the state, especially Up North
With federal money slow to arrive, many repairs will be left undone until next year or later
In Manistee County, a collapsed bridge caused a 45-mile detour for a school bus route, prompting at least one family to pull their kids out of the district

It’s 6:30 in the morning and the first day of school has already started for third-graders Violette Marvin and her brother, Robby.

In northeast Michigan, their mom is making the 20-minute drive to the bus stop in Irons about a half-hour earlier than last year. On the bus, what used to be a 30-minute ride will now take at least an hour because the route has a 45-mile detour since High Bridge Road, the main way over the Manistee River, washed out during April’s historic flooding.

With the trip home, the kids will likely spend more than two hours a day on the bus.

“It’s bad enough that in a few weeks it’ll be pitch dark when they get on the bus,” said their dad, Robert Marvin. “But I really worry about this winter. Now the bus has to take side roads not made for a lot of traffic that can get really bad when it snows.”

Related:

The historic April floods washed out roads and collapsed bridges and dams across half the state, especially Up North, and the true cost is still unknown.

A crane removes a large damaged culvert from beneath a roadway over a creek. — A crane lifts one of three huge culverts damaged by floodwater on Bear Creek in Kaleva. The weeklong cleanup cost the Manistee County Road Commission $64,000. Replacing the bridge and roadway is not expected before 2028. (Charlie Brooks for The Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative)

More than a dozen Michigan counties have sought a combined more than $17 million in emergency assistance for road repairs, the Michigan Department of Transportation says, but unexpected losses are coming into view, too: The Marvins’ school district has had to spend tens of thousands of dollars in new transportation costs while losing tens of thousands of dollars as students are transferred out of the district to avoid the long detours.

“One hundred percent, it’s frustrating,” said Jake Veith, superintendent of Kaleva Norman Dickson School District, a rural district that covers 350 square miles anchored by the Manistee National Forest.

Even after adding another bus, driver and route for about $80,000 this year, the longest roundtrips will take more than four hours.

“We already know five kids are transferring out because of the longer routes,” said Veith. “And we’ve budgeted for losing as many as 30.”

Five students is the equivalent of $52,000 in lost per-pupil revenue from the state, nearly equal to the average teacher salary in the district. The district has a roughly $8 million budget.

Keith Moore is director of the Manistee County Road Commission, the agency responsible for fixing High Bridge and all other county roads. He’d been on the job for five weeks last spring when melting snow, topped by 2 feet of new snow followed by almost a foot of rain created what he called a perfect storm for floods.

The commission has already spent more than $400,000 on emergency repairs to 24 roads, but the seven biggest projects still wait for funding. The estimated price tag, according to Moore, is $5 million, roughly two-thirds of the commission’s annual $8 million budget.

High Bridge Road alone, he says, will take nearly $2 million — money the commission can’t afford to spend unless assured it will get paid back with emergency federal money.

A damaged section of roadway has collapsed along a wooded embankment, with traffic cones marking the area. — A mudslide from heavy rains undermined High Bridge Road in Manistee County, forcing its closure. More than four months after the slide, no reconstruction has begun while officials search for funding. (Charlie Brooks for The Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative)

Moore has faced a criticism at public meetings from residents who want the commission to get work started right away,

“How do I pay my guys next week if I’m flat broke? How do I buy fuel to run the plow trucks this winter? I gotta have some cushion to operate on because that storm could happen again tomorrow,” Moore said.

Federal aid doesn’t come fast. It’s taken more than a year to start arriving in some northern Michigan communities devastated by a 2025 spring ice storm.

“It’s a long process with all the checks and balances,” said Todd Bechler, safety and security director for the Michigan Department of Transportation. “If you’re claiming a dollar for a plastic fork, you’re gonna have to come up with a receipt.”

Moore’s most hopeful guess is Manistee County might see money from FEMA and the Federal Highway Administration early next year. Add time for the required permits and reviews, and High Bridge Road will likely remain closed until at least June 2027. Replacing other bridges the floods destroyed could take 18 months or more.

Near Traverse City, it may be a case of being in a bad place at a good time. The swollen Boardman River washed away the bridge on Beitner Road that over 20,000 vehicles crossed every day

There, repair work started in early August and the Grand Traverse Road Commission intends to have the road open by the end of the year.

And, according to Grand Traverse Road Commission Director Dan Watkins, “We could’ve gotten started weeks earlier, almost right away, if it wasn’t for all the paperwork.”

It helped that the bridge had already been targeted by the county for replacement in 2027, so the project had a head start getting Federal Highway Administration money.

Even so, Watkins said, “there were a lot of sleepless nights trying to get everything done, all the paperwork, planning and design — just getting all the stuff done we needed to do.”

One thing Watkins has heard from his counterparts in places devastated by the 2025 ice storm was, despite a statewide disaster declaration, don’t hold out for money from FEMA.

“We were told right away don’t expect any FEMA money for maybe years, and when it comes it will most likely be pennies on the dollar,” he said.

School superintendent Veith understands the process is complicated and money is tight — just like at his schools.

But that doesn’t make the bus rides any shorter.

“I hate to think it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still like this when school starts next year,” he said.

This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.

Thank you to our Northern Edition sponsors

Bridge Michigan Northern Edition is made possible by generous financial support from our sponsors. Sponsorship supports our independent journalism mission but does not constitute sponsor endorsement of individual articles or editorial content. Bridge Michigan journalism remains fact- and data-driven and independent at all times.

Please visit the About page for more information and to subscribe to Bridge Michigan Northern Edition. Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Emma Carr.