On April 18, 1975 the city of Williamston, Michigan, experienced an intense rainstorm that caused the red cedar river and the many small streams in the area to overflow their banks and resulted in the most devastating flood since at least 1904. Local officials estimated a loss of $775,000 in property damage. The extent of flooding along the red cedar river and deer creek is shown on the photomosaic base maps. The drainage area of Red Cedar River at Williamston is about 240 square miles. During the 7-hour duration of the April 18 storm, Williamston received 4.89 inches of rain. Precipitation of that intensity can be expected to occur only about once every 100 years on the average. At the time of the storm, streamflow was relatively high as a result of snowmelt from a heavy snowfall that had occurred 2 weeks earlier. The peak discharge at East Lansing was 5,940 cfs or 17 cfs per square mile. Runoff of deer and Sloan creeks was appreciably higher than for the red cedar at Williamston.(WOODARD-USGS)
RECORD ID: 7601190
F&G CODE: 02e; 04a
Publication
Knutilla, R.L. and Swallow, L.A., Map Showing Flood of April 1975 at Williamston,
Michigan: Open-File Report 75-289, 1975. 1 Sheet, 9 Fig, 1 Tab.
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