Benton Harbor business loop shutdown due to flooding

BENTON HARBOR, Mich – Benton Harbor drivers noticed an often flooded street closed to thru traffic on Tuesday. 

The I-94 business loop towards the end of Main street in Benton Harbor was closed because of deep water spanning the width of the street. 

Local officials and experts said there are many reasons for the flooding including high lake levels, wind, drainage issue and eventually snowmelt that could make the flooding worse.  

“The St. Joe river and Paw Paw river are both extremely high as well the water tables are high so any rain or snowmelt the surface water just drains slowly into an already saturated flood plain,” MDOT Spokesperson Nick Schirripa said. 

MDOT is one of the entities that maintains the !-94 business loop area in which MDOT said they have very few options to solve the flooding problem.  

“We can’t make the lake any lower we can’t unsaturate the flood plain there’s nothing we can do we’re really at nature’s mercy,” Schirripa said. 

MDOT is working on finding a long term solution to the flooding problem.

“We’ve been working on a more long-term solution we don’t know what that’s gonna be yet because we really haven’t identified the problem,” Schirippa said.