Weather mayhem in Metro Detroit leads to flooding headaches for travelers at DTW

Flooded DTW tunnel after Monday's heavy rain

Video from Karen Humphrey shows just how flooded the DTW tunnel was during Monday's heavy rain.

ROMULUS, Mich. (FOX 2) - A week of heavy showers pelted the Metro Detroit area, leading to flooding headaches on the road. 

Big picture view:

Wednesday's storms brought some flooding similar to Monday's storm, which caused major delays in the air and on the ground. 

That was the case with one woman on Monday who was caught driving through extremely flooded roads while at the airport. The whole thing was caught on camera. 

The driver in the video watched as a waterfall of rain water crashed onto the road at the entrance of a tunnel, which is not a pretty sight from the helm of a 2006 Envoy.

What they're saying:

The driver told FOX 2 that she could not turn around and made the scary decision to enter the tunnel near the Delta Terminal. Her friend in the passenger seat recorded the whole thing, which can be viewed in the video below. 

They made it out, but their story was not the only frustration felt on the tarmac.

On Monday, Dr. Rose Moten was stuck for 6 hours on the road heading to DTW because of the rain, leading to her missing a connection in Los Angeles en route to Hawaii. 

"We headed down the tarmac and the pilot said we are next in line to take off and out of nowhere everything went crazy. The plane was shaking with the rain that came down," said Moten.

But nature was not done as Dr. Moten was only in Maui for an hour when sirens blasted a tsunami warning. 

"They were urging people to evacuate and go to higher ground, and we heard the sirens," Moten said. "We just kind of found a parking lot and we sat in our cars and fell asleep in our cars and listened in on our cell phones to the reports."

For 12 hours, she and her family waited with worry. Fortunately, the tsunami never came, and now she can enjoy her trip. 

Local perspective:

Back in Michigan, the driver's trek through the tunnel was similar to another scene in 2023 when the tunnel was also flooded. 

FOX 2 asked the Wayne County Airport Authority about the flooding issue, with them saying they are investigating to figure out what happened:    

"In an effort to find a long-term solution, a comprehensive stormwater study is underway to assess our overall system capacity. In the meantime, we’ve significantly increased pump capacity at DTW. We’ve also made mechanical and electrical upgrades since 2023."