The city estimates that the barrier helped prevent nearly two-and-a-half million dollars worth of damage last month. FOX 47's Marcus Dash went back to the Urbandale neighborhood today.
The barricade wasn't the only money-saver. Lansing and Ingham county has been buying and demolishing abandoned homes in the floodplain, making sure someone doesn't move in and lose everything.
Businesses are still recovering from the flood and some will be doing so for quite a while
"We had 7 inches of water in here our freezer on the bottom our walk-in freezer was a solid block on the bottom," said Haleigh Mason Co-owner of Bake N' Cakes.
"Devastating. If you look around water was up in here about mid-thigh about 3 feet," said Steve Spalding owner of ACE Cleaners.
As these businesses have finally gotten above water
They are starting to see the impact it's having on their cash registers
"We haven't had to assess this amount of damage and product loss since I have been here and well before that," said Mason.
Steve Spalding- owner of one of the businesses hurt by the flood says the city told him the barricade didn't raise the level that much.
He doesn't think that's true, but even so, he says he's fine with being the sacrifice for a whole neighborhood.
"We are six people in this quadrant where all the business got flooded and there's hundreds of homes and stuff so I don't blame them for that at all," said Spalding.
All of the owners I spoke with said the barricades made the damage to their businesses even worse, but they all agreed people's livelihoods are more important.
"Without our customers, we wouldn't have a business if customers don't have a home they have no business being somewhere like here," said Mason.
Some of the businesses here, like Bake N' Cakes, are back open right now. Others like Green Dot Stables and Steakhouse Philly are still closed. Business owners tell me they're holding out hope they will get some kind of relief from the government. The state is offering emergency assistance to low-income residents affected by the flooding.
