Community preparedness — Michigan
Lake-effect blizzards, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding, and the unique hazards of living surrounded by the largest freshwater system on Earth. MSU Extension in all 83 counties, 60+ ham radio clubs, four NWS offices, and CERT teams from Detroit to the Upper Peninsula.
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Community calendar
CERT trainings, canning workshops, ham radio exams, garden workdays, first aid classes. Events from local organizations that build community resilience.
83
County extension offices
4
NWS forecast offices
60+
Amateur radio clubs
28
Community colleges
Where to plug in
Michigan is two peninsulas surrounded by the Great Lakes, and every county faces water-driven hazards. The Lower Peninsula deals with severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and lake-effect snow. The Upper Peninsula faces extreme winter and isolation. The entire state is vulnerable to flooding, dam failures, and the infrastructure challenges of a state with over 1,000 dams. The organizations below serve all 83 counties.
Michigan State University Extension serves all 83 Michigan counties through county and district offices. Programming spans agriculture (cherries, blueberries, apples, dairy, sugar beets), horticulture, food safety, nutrition, financial literacy, 4-H youth development, and community development. MSU Extension is one of the most comprehensive land-grant extension systems in the country.
The Master Gardener program trains thousands of volunteers across Michigan's diverse growing zones — from the fruit belt along Lake Michigan to the short-season Upper Peninsula. Extension runs food preservation workshops, farm management education, and community nutrition programs. The Greening of Detroit partnership brings extension programming to urban agriculture in the city.
The Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division (MSP/EMHSD) coordinates the state's all-hazards emergency program through county emergency management offices and seven district coordinators. Michigan's EM system addresses severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, lake-effect snow events, flooding, dam failures, and the challenge of serving a state split into two peninsulas connected by a single bridge.
CERT programs are active across Michigan. Wayne County (Detroit), Kent County (Grand Rapids), Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor), Ingham County (Lansing), and Midland County all run programs. After the catastrophic 2020 Midland dam failures that forced 10,000 people to evacuate, CERT enrollment grew significantly across central Michigan. Training is free.
American Red Cross chapters serve all of Michigan through the Michigan Region, with chapters in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ann Arbor, Traverse City, Marquette, and other communities. First aid, CPR, AED, water safety, and lifeguarding classes are offered year-round.
During the 2020 Midland dam failures, Red Cross opened shelters for 10,000 evacuated residents — in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding extraordinary complexity to shelter operations. Michigan Red Cross also responds to home fires daily in the Detroit metro and deploys for severe weather and flooding events statewide.
Michigan has over 60 amateur radio clubs in the ARRL Michigan Section, part of the Central Division. ARES teams are activated during severe weather, flooding, and winter storms. In the Upper Peninsula, where cell coverage is limited and winter storms can isolate communities for days, ham radio is a genuine survival tool.
Getting licensed costs $15 for the exam and about $35 for a basic handheld radio. Study at hamstudy.org, then find a local exam session. Clubs in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ann Arbor, Traverse City, Marquette, and throughout both peninsulas host exams regularly.
Four NWS offices serve Michigan: Detroit/White Lake (southeast MI), Grand Rapids (southwest MI), Gaylord (northern Lower Peninsula), and Marquette (Upper Peninsula). Each runs SKYWARN spotter training before severe weather season.
Michigan's weather hazards include severe thunderstorms with damaging hail, tornadoes, lake-effect snow (some of the heaviest in the country), flash flooding, dangerous Great Lakes rip currents, and ice storms. The Great Lakes create their own weather — lake-effect bands can dump feet of snow in narrow corridors. Training is free and runs about 2 hours.
Michigan has over 380 public library locations overseen by the Library of Michigan. Detroit Public Library, Grand Rapids Public Library, Ann Arbor District Library, and Traverse Area District Library run extensive community programming. Michigan's library cooperatives ensure that even the smallest Upper Peninsula communities have access to library services.
Michigan has 28 community colleges — one of the largest systems in the Midwest. Institutions like Grand Rapids CC, Washtenaw CC (Ann Arbor), Lansing CC, Henry Ford College (Dearborn), and Bay College (Upper Peninsula) offer affordable continuing education in EMT certification, fire science, welding, automotive technology, and nursing.
Why this matters
On May 19, 2020, after days of heavy rain, the Edenville Dam on the Tittabawassee River failed. Hours later, the Sanford Dam downstream also gave way. A wall of water swept through Midland County, flooding downtown Midland, destroying homes, and threatening a Dow Chemical facility. Over 10,000 residents were ordered to evacuate — in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The timing could not have been worse. Sheltering evacuees required social distancing protocols. Emergency workers needed PPE for both flood response and disease prevention. But the community organized rapidly. CERT volunteers helped manage evacuation shelters with pandemic safety protocols. Ham radio operators provided backup communications for emergency management. Volunteer fire departments ran boat rescue operations.
Red Cross opened shelters that had to be configured for both flood evacuees and pandemic spacing — a challenge no shelter manual had addressed. MSU Extension agents helped connect displaced families and agricultural producers with recovery resources. Churches and community organizations adapted their disaster response playbooks to include masks and distancing.
The Midland dam failures proved that infrastructure Michiganders assumed was safe could fail catastrophically, and that communities need to be ready for compound disasters — when two crises hit at once. The organizations on this page build that layered resilience across all 83 counties.
The foundation
Community resilience begins with a household that can take care of itself. Cover the first 72 hours, then extend outward to your street, your neighborhood, your town.
Start with the first 72 hours