Sandbags ready along Lake St. Clair as rain continues in SE Michigan

ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. (FOX 2) - The rain isn't stopping anytime soon in the Detroit area and for people along Lake St. Clair, who are already dealing with high waters, it's only going to get worse.

Along the lakeshore, in St. Clair Shores, docks on the river are already under water after days of heavy rain and a strong wind blowing off the lake.

"They were 15 feet crashing up over that wall. They were just rolling in, constantly," said John Lambert, who lives on Lake St. Clair.

Piles of sand are available for residents to fill up sandbags and get ready for even more flooding 

"We have flooded before, in the 80s and 90s. All of a suddend the water was low and people were talking oh my gosh, the lake levels are so bad - and here we are out of 2019 and we're kinda flooding a little bit," said St Clair Shores Mayor Kip Walby.

With more rain predicted Wednesday and Thursday, piles of sand may get used again and again. But again, it's not just the rain - it's the blowing winds off the lake.

"The rain doesn't help but what we've been seeing is the onshore winds, the waves coming onshore, that's been really causing the havoc and what's been causing all the sandbagging," said St. Clair Shores Director of Public Works Bryan Babcock,  

The city is ready and even found about 80,000 sandbags from the 1980s. People can go to city hall to get them and load them with sand.

But it's not just St. Clair Shores, Chesterfield Township and Harrison Township also have free sandbags for residents.

"Come down to the Civic Arena or Veterans Memorial Park and get the bags from DPW and start putting them around because, you get those east winds Charlie, it can be bad and you're going to see it," Walby said.