As much as 7 inches of rain fell in parts of the region, according to the National Weather Service office in Negaunee, turning city streets into torrents and creating deep fissures in other roadways in the region that made them impassable.

The areas most affected included Houghton County to Gogebic and Menominee and include Baraga and Ontonagon counties.

The Calumet Colosseum was offering shelter to those with damaged homes or in evacuation zones, particularly from the Lake Linden and Hubbell area, where damage was extensive. Aspirus Lake Linden Clinic in Lake Linden was closed today.

The Houghton County Sheriff’s Office urged people to stay off the roads until the rain events end. Any travel should be cautious and slow in areas with water over the road. If fast-moving water is present, turn back and locate a safer route.

SOME OF THE SCENES from Houghton after heavy rains triggered flash flooding throughout the community. Here, water from heights of Houghton rushes through homes and Lakeshore Drive into Portage Lake. (Kali Katerberg/Daily Mining Gazette photo)

Michigan Technological University announced the campus will be closed Monday.

In Houghton, a swollen creek washed away much of a parking lot, threatening businesses. It took down the Taco Bell restaurant sign and carved land up to the restaurant’s building into the adjacent ravine.

Keith Anderson, an emergency services worker, tried to keep curious locals away from the new water-filled gorge. Though the rain started around midnight, he was called out at 4 a.m. by the flash flooding reports.

“Get away from that edge. There’s nothing under you,” he shouted at a group wandering onto an undercut slab on the other side. He received a middle finger in response.

“I know it all seems like fun, until you’re in the drink,” said Buck Foltz of the Houghton Fire Department, monitoring the Houghton waterfront along West Lakeshore Drive.

The Taco Bell drive- through in Houghton was washed away by flooding after heavy rains swept through the region. (Kali Katerberg/Daily Mining Gazette photo)

The site of Saturday night’s Bridgefest festivities became a torrent of water rushing into the Portage Waterway, complete with waterfalls.

The level of damage and flooding is historic.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Foltz said.

“The problem is you have all this pavement now, so there’s nowhere for the water to go into the ground, so you build these storm sewers, but this (volume) is what you don’t plan for,” Foltz said.

“It’s all storm sewer, and it can’t accommodate the amount of water, so then it just wears it out,” he added.

A street in Houghton undercut by floodwaters from heavy rains. (Kali Katerberg/Daily Mining Gazette photo)

With more rain coming, Foltz was concerned even more of the area would end up in the Portage Canal.

In downtown Houghton, businesses and residents already attempting to clean up and salvage merchandise and belongings.

Water flowing down Dodge Street continued through the businesses at the bottom of the hill, including Fifth and Elm, offices of the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region, Black Ice Comics and Center Ice Skate and Sport.

Owners and employees attempted to save and salvage what they could.

Fifth and Elm owner Frank Fiala only heard about the flooding when an employee contacted him at 7 a.m. Sunday. Fiala told him to stay put and he would open the coffee house himself.

At that point, he received a voicemail from a friend offering help.

“I said, ‘I wonder what that’s all about’ and I got here about 7:20, and then I quickly found out,” he said.

The building was directly in the path of the moving wall of water.

“It came through this sinkhole here,” Fiala said, pointing a former outdoor seating area. “This used to be the old city street, see. This was filled in in the late ’70s when they built the building, and as a consequence it’s gone down, and it just took everything out and went through a wall. They’ve got substantial damage down below.”

The water that was flowing through the streets when he arrived had subsided by late Sunday morning, leaving the distinctive trail of rocks and sediment seen across the region, even in areas like Painesdale, one of the highest points of elevation in the Copper Country.

“It’s just one of those events where you get an incredible amount of water in a short amount of time, and it’s just really one of those things you can’t plan for,” Fiala said.

“This can all be fixed,” he added.