Lake Michigan Storm Clean Up Continues

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Crews are working to clean up debris that was strewn along Lake Michigan during a storm last week.

Strong winds blew tree trunks, branches, tires, wooden pallets, ladders and other items across beaches in Michigan and Indiana on Oct. 31. Bob McFeeter said the storm damage at Jean Klock Park in Benton Harbor, Mich., is the worst he has seen in a decade of overseeing park maintenance as the director of development at Evergreen Development Company.

“We will do our best to clear this material before winter,” he said.

But if the debris can’t be cleared up soon, it will be buried in the sand by spring, making it even more difficult to clean up, McFeeter said.

Tiscornia Beach in St. Joseph, Mich., was also littered with debris after the storm, according to city manager Richard Lewis.

There’s lots of stuff from the storm, especially on the piers,” he said.

Little to no damage was reported on two other beaches in the area, Lions Park Beach and Silver Beach.

A one-mile stretch of shoreline across Washington Park in Michigan City, Ind., was hit by winds up to 70 mph. Crews collected about 40 dump truck loads of debris, which mainly consisted of beach grass, by noon on Nov. 3.

Water that was pushed inland during the storm caused the shoreline to erode and created up to 4-foot cliffs in some areas of Washington Park.