KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Mindy Golston has been working at Manpower near Crosstown Parkway for over a decade, she said. The lawns along the road typically flood when it rains or storms. However, over the years, it’s gotten worse.
“People walked through, rode their bikes through, laid in the grass,” said Golston about what it used to look like. “But every year it’s getting worse to now we just have a permanent lake with ducks. We come out and give them bread sometimes.”
Crosstown Parkway was closed Monday and most of Tuesday due to floods the weekend's storms left behind. Monday night's thunderstorms only added to the standing water. TheCity of Kalamazoo released a statement Tuesday morning stating that Crosstown, between Rose Street and Park Street was closed along with parts of Dutton Street and Forest Street.
“It never flooded this bad when I was a kid,” said local resident Brandi Curtis. “So it’s different seeing it flooded all the way across.”
Brandi and her husband Andy Curtis drove by the floods on Crosstown to take a look at it. They live up on hill and aren't affected by the flood, Andy said. However he, like many, agree that the flooding has intensified lately
“I’ve actually heard that it’s because they’ve been, some people say, messing with nature, messing with the river, a creek that’s going through downtown Kalamazoo,” he said. “They've been changing things, that that might be a reason why. I’m not really sure. We have noticed bigger flooding that’s for sure [over the] last couple of years.”
