Midland area floods: Victims still searching for justice 5-years-later

Five years since Midland area dam failures

Five years later most victims say they still have not received justice. And a local attorney is shining a light on the problems that remain. Attorney Ven Johnson hosted a press conference in Midland outlining what he says have been massive failures in state government to do right by the many victims of those devastating floods.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Five years ago Monday night, many in Metro Detroit with property in the Saginaw and Midland areas lost everything as historic floods raged from a staggering dam system failure.

The backstory:

Five years later most victims say they still have not received justice. And a local attorney is shining a light on the problems that remain.

Attorney Ven Johnson hosted a press conference in Midland outlining what he says have been massive failures in state government to do right by the many victims of those devastating floods.

While there is an eventual trial date for January 2026, many say it’s not so simple with so many delays already.

What they're saying:

Nearly everything Kurt Yockey owned and loved at his house in the Great Lakes Bay Region was lost to raging waters in the 2020 dam failures that caused never-before-seen flooding in Midland, Saginaw and Gladwin Counties.

"The entire lower level was full of water and than up to about your waist on the first floor," he said. "Everything had to get thrown out. Furniture, most of the clothing, but in particular things like the pictures of kids and I had pictures of every high school team that I had ever coached from 1973 through the time of the event - all that, lost."

He says he’s among many victims still waiting for justice, five years later and followed the press conference hosted by Detroit Attorney Ven Johnson, a Saginaw native, who says several state agencies keep kicking the can down the road.

"The state has completely waived taxpayer money and time by trying to file motions to get out of the case and appeal every adverse ruling that they’ve gotten," Johnson said.

It is something that he says, and does not seem to be changing with what he calls another adverse ruling handed down.

"Because they are a governmental entity, and they have an automatic right of appeal that the rest of us don’t enjoy. If we were in a lawsuit - but they do because the law says they can - which needs to change right away - it’s despicable," he said. 

What's next:

Things have worked out a little better for Autumn Pontseele’s family since the historic flood.

"I know my mom is still making changes to the house. She’s always showing me pictures of what she’s doing," she said. "It came out to be an okay situation. At the end of things, thankfully, with the grant that we got, we were able to rebuild."

But that’s not the case for so many others who would like to see a fund created to help with long-term recovery, like what took place after the Flint Water Crisis. Johnson says there should be a process that fairly compensates the victims for the right value of their losses.

"We’re five years and, we’re really not that close to getting a trial date," he said.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement that the plaintiffs have already lost their lawsuit against the country's governments due to lack of evidence.

We expect the same thing will happen in the Court of Claims. The plaintiffs do not have the evidence to support their allegations. Instead, the evidence confirms that the state agencies are not responsible for the dam’s failure.