PORTLAND, Mich. — Portland city leaders are advising residents to hold off on pumping water out and to be prepared additional flooding.
Due to the threat of another ice jam that can cause more flooding, Portland City Manager Tutt Gorman says there are many unknown variables as it relates to damage assessments and clean-up efforts.
He’s asking residents to wait to pump water out at this time until the weather event fully runs its course.
“A lot of times if you have connecting buildings or if you pump the water out too soon there can be a compression or equalization issue that may cause more damage to the structure, so you want to be careful about being too aggressive with those clean-up stages”, Gorman explained.
Gorman says right now the city is concerned about another round of evacuations in the event of additional flooding.
The city is currently working directly with the National Weather Service, Army Corps of Engineers and MSP Emergency Management to monitor the situation.
Gorman says Portland is being hit hard financially and will continue to use resources allocated under the State of Emergency to help with overtime wages and infrastructure damage.
“Obviously when you're dealing with infrastructure relating to bridges, to your parks, to your waste water treatment plant, your electric grid, it can certainly be substantial”, Gorman said.
The Portland Community Fund is raising money to help flood victims.
Their next fundraiser is March 1st at the VFW in Portland.
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