A city on a river that floods

The city of Midland sits where the Tittabawassee and Chippewa rivers meet, with a third river, the Pine, joining the Chippewa just upstream. That’s beautiful, but it also means parts of the city flood. The Tittabawassee is a “flashy” river that rises fast after heavy rain or snowmelt, and Midland has seen serious floods more than once. The big one came in May 2020, when two dams upstream failed and the river crested far above normal, putting much of downtown and many riverside neighborhoods under water.

None of this should scare you off — most of the city is high and dry, and the area has a lot going for it. But if you’re buying near any of these rivers, or in a low spot, check whether the property sits in a mapped flood zone before you commit. A flood zone usually means buying flood insurance on top of a normal policy, which adds to the monthly cost. The county and FEMA both publish flood maps you can look up by address.