{"id":748324,"date":"2026-07-07T10:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/748324\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T10:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:44:15","slug":"photos-major-flooding-damages-branch-county-homes-during-once-in-a-century-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/748324\/","title":{"rendered":"PHOTOS: Major flooding damages Branch County homes during ‘once-in-a-century’ storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

QUINCY TOWNSHIP, Mich. \u2014 Officials in Branch County are calling it a once-in-a-century storm.<\/p>\n

Homes and yards were underwater in Quincy Township after the weekend brought more than seven inches of rain in some areas, overwhelming drain systems.<\/p>\n

“We couldn’t do anything but sit there and watch it fill in the cars,” Tracie Johnson said.<\/p>\n

The rain fell so quickly Sunday morning she didn\u2019t have time to move her vehicles to higher ground.<\/p>\n

Videos show water surging across Williams Drive, pouring into basements and taking chairs and yard decorations with it.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A car submerged under water on Williams Drive in Quincy Township, July 5, 2026. More than five inches of rain fell in parts of Branch County. (Tyler Burns\/WWMT)<\/p>\n

Now, she\u2019s faced with a flooded car that insurance won\u2019t cover all because of an overflowing culvert next to her home.<\/p>\n

Her neighbor saw her workout room filled with mud.<\/p>\n

“We have a gym in the garage, and we’ve got, like, $40,000 worth of damaged equipment, two treadmills, StairMaster,” Valorie Johnson said.<\/p>\n

With other homes in the neighborhood tearing out carpet and leaving indoor items out to dry, they tell us they\u2019re wondering why the county drain system couldn\u2019t handle it.<\/p>\n

Johnson says the county drain commission did come out to unplug the culvert Sunday.<\/p>\n

But the flooding happened all over again when another round of rain hit that evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cFigure out how to stop it,” Valorie said when asked what she would like to see the county do. “I\u2019ve been here 35 years and we\u2019ve never had this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

News Channel 3 took their concerns to Drain Commissioner Michael Hard, who is in charge of more than 400 county drains, including the one under Williams Road.<\/p>\n

As the water recedes, he says crews are now finding out which spots are plugged by debris like downed tree limbs.<\/p>\n

Some repairs can be done in a few days, while others he expects to take months.<\/p>\n

“When you look at a storm event this size, they weren’t designed to handle that size of an event,” he said, referring to local drains.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A flooded yard in Quincy Township. Residents say they haven’t seen this amount of rain in decades. (Holly Diamond\/WWMT)<\/p>\n

Hard explains many Branch County tile mains, or underground water pipes, were built in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n

According to him, replacing them with ones that can handle a storm like this would be charged to taxpayers, as drain infrastructure is not covered by state or federal funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of money involved would be more than the local property owners could withstand,” he said.<\/p>\n

With more rain expected later this week, Williams Road residents are worried they may have to dry out yet again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever’s going on is new and that they should be able to locate the problem and fix it,” Valorie said.<\/p>\n

Some neighbors are considering filing for compensation with the government.<\/p>\n

Michigan law allows homeowners to collect damages if they can prove drain authorities knew or should have known about an issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUINCY TOWNSHIP, Mich. \u2014 Officials in Branch County are calling it a once-in-a-century storm. Homes and yards were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-748324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}