The Sun is Shining – Update on Fathers Day Flood

Quite a bit of new information has come out since I wrote yesterday, so I thought I would take a moment to fill you all in. A quick announcement, I have a Facebook Page for the site. I use it mostly to get the word out, so posts are few, but usually important for the site and/or region. Please visit it, like it, go up to the “Following” button at the top and be sure you are set to receive notifications. For those that do not check the site on a daily basis and want to know when important items have been added, this is the ticket!

There are a number of important things I would like to make right off the bat, so I will just list them here to keep it short, but sweet.

  1. The area impacted by the flash flooding was rather small as far as a percentage of the region known as the Keweenaw. All areas from Calumet north were not impacted and are fine. Same with areas from around South Range south.
  2. Most of the roads/structures impacted will not have an impact on visitors. All the major highways are now passable. In a few spots they are at a single lane with automated signal lights to direct traffic, but we are not stranded and anyone can come and go from the region freely.
  3. Almost all businesses are open. To my knowledge, no hotels/motels were ever closed. I have not heard of any restaurants either, but some of the fast food places up near the strip malls towards Walmart might be, as that was a hard hit area.
  4. Because of the nature of the flooding, the things needed are very diverse and the best way to help would be to send a monetary donation and then those funds can be used locally to get what is needed.
    Donations – I have 4 sources that I feel 100% confident folks can send to.
    1) The Keweenaw Community Foundation. This seems to be the lead fund raising mechanism right now and 100% of the donations will be going to it.
    2) Portage Health Foundation – Flood relief.
    3) A go-fund-me page has been set up by a friend of mine and regular visitor to the site. All of the donations made here will go to the Keweenaw Community Foundation.
    4) American Red Cross- Houghton County. For those wanting to send items like clothes, daily living items, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.

I can report that the clean-up and recovery is going very well. There is still a ton of work to do, but I am so proud to be part of this community. Yesterday, there were several small armies of volunteers that banded together to help those who were impacted. These were just impromptu gatherings, where folks went down to the hardest hit areas and simply said: “I am here to help, what can I do?”. In many cases, the volunteers did not even know who they were helping. At this moment, I believe there are actually more lists of individuals waiting to be told where they can go to help than there are lists of areas that need help. Such a wonderful group of people. If you ask me, it is what makes the Keweenaw what it is more than anything else.

We are a tough group of people up here and will band together when the need arises. That does not mean that we cannot use help from the outside, especially in the form of monetary donations. Some have lost all  and many have lost some and they need all of our help.

I will continue to update things as they come down the pipe.

Blessings from the Keweenaw..
JD