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Water levels hover about 7 inches below Cheboygan dam, as powerhouse turbines placed back in service

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Paula Wethington
Paula Wethington
Web Producer
Paula Wethington is a digital producer at CBS Detroit. She previously held digital content roles at NEWSnet, Gannett/USA Today network and The Monroe News in Michigan. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina.
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Paula Wethington

/ CBS Detroit

Water levels hovered around 7 inches below the top of the dam Saturday at the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex in Northern Michigan, after having spiked less than 6 inches from the top of the dam earlier in the week. 

The water was at 7.08 inches below the top of the dam at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. It had fallen slightly to 7.32 inches below the top of the dam , the State of Michigan Emergency Management and Homeland Security said. The Friday afternoon reading was 7.08 inches. 

The water levels on the Cheboygan River near the dam in Cheboygan County have been closely , when the water was at 21.5 inches below the dam. Emergency warnings to local residents ramped up when the water reached 12 inches below the dam, and further when the water reached 6 inches below the dam. 

As those alerts got issued, downtown Cheboygan business owners started bracing for the worst while hoping for the best.   

ready-set-go-dam-flooding-guideline.png
Ready Set Go guidelines provided to Cheboygan-area residents about the water levels at Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex in Northern Michigan. NEXT Weather/CBS Detroit

If the water reaches 1 inch below the dam's top, an evacuation order will go out for the area. 

Getting the powerhouse back in service

While sandbagging and portable water pumps were placed several days ago, the latest step that appeared to have made a difference was getting the turbines of a  to help redirect the water and relieve pressure on the dam. 

The . State officials said when the equipment is working at full capacity, the hydroelectric turbines can move nearly one-third more water through the dam than previously, pumping an additional 2,000 cubic feet per second.

The powerhouse is privately owned and has been closed since 2023. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources owns and operates the lock and spillway.

"We've had a lot of people working on this," said Richard Hill of the DNR's Incident Management Team. "The effort was technical and exacting, involving rewiring circuits, testing machinery that has been idle for years and connecting the power station to the grid."    

Flooding across Cheboygan County 

Many local roads in Cheboygan County remain closed because of high water, the Cheboygan County Sheriff's Office said. Some residents who live near the Little Black River Watershed were ordered into a temporary evacuation mode.   

And in new developments on Saturday morning, evacuations took place near Black Lake where a critical local road had washed away. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer opened the State Emergency Operations Center on April 10 to coordinate efforts on flood response. 

Federal agencies among those assisting

The response to the flooding threat has involved the resources of numerous state and local agencies, but also some federal ones.

The U.S. Border Patrol, Detroit Sector, have been on site in Cheboygan. The U.S. Coast Guard  also among those working with Cheboygan emergency officials.

The above video originally aired on April 16, 2026.

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