OHIO, USA — A combination of all the recent strong winds and rain caused some major flooding in and around northwest Ohio on Tuesday.
"And then flooding happens, so once that water goes up, it's gotta go somewhere," said Ed Verhamme, a Great Lakes engineer with LimnoTech.
Verhamme helps maintain about half the weather buoys that track wind and waves on Lake Erie.
He says flooding isn't unusual around this time, but the lake levels are.
"Since 2012, lake levels have risen almost four-and-a-half feet. You know we've just been getting more rain and more run-off into the lake and we haven't seen a sort of perpetuated loss of water," said Verhamme.
The combination of high water and strong winds caused several surrounding areas to flood, and in some cases evacuate. They include places along Lakeshore, where some roads were invisible.
Also Cullen Park in Point Place, where it looked like a pond, and several homes in Monroe where families were evacuated.
But what exactly causes the high waters?
"We think of Lake Erie like a bath tub. You know, we know that the water level is high and then once we get a wind coming from the east it pushes the water up. It's physically draining the water to one side of the bath tub. And you're getting a drop in water near Buffalo and a rise in water near Toledo," said Verhamme.
He also fears the flooding won't be over soon and instead recommends cities look into building stronger infrastructure.
"And what scientist are really worried about right now, is there's no reason that the lake can't rise another foot on top where it's at already. So there's not too much of a naturally regulation of lake levels. We're really understanding more about how these changes and climate are gonna impact us today and years to come," said Verhamme.