Detroit is in the thick of a crisis.
The Michigan city is in the midst of a natural disaster, however, this is not a disaster coming from the sky—a 54-inch water main ruptured during below-freezing temperatures, leading to a horrible flood that has frozen.
The high waters froze over cars, parts of homes, sidewalks, and many other parts of the city, putting citizens in a frozen gridlock. The pipe burst forced over 300 families out of their homes, and according to Detroit Water & Sewerage Department said in a press conference that it could be up to six weeks before these families can return to their homes.
While the city is working diligently to help families in need by offering free Uber rides to get to and from work or the grocery store, and the police have provided to tow any cars totaled due to the flood and freeze, it’s still devastating.
“We have shifted from the rescue phase to the service phase, and we are now going house to house.”
WXYZ Detroit reported Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said at a Tuesday news conference.
While the community is now (hopefully) on the mend from this devastating pipe burst, the community is also mourning the loss of community members as a few families who were living in their cars froze to death during the incident.
Darnell and A’Millah Curry, the 9 and 2-year-olds, were two children who lost their lives after they were believed to be sleeping in their mother’s van when the flood waters froze. Heartbreaking.
While reading news articles about the tragedy can highlight some horrific events, nothing puts an event into perspective better than a video. One Detroit resident shared a TikTok of his street highlighting how high the frozen flood waters were sitting.
The video was posted 24 hours ago and gained over 17 million views, 1.3 million likes, and hundreds of thousands of comments. Cars are half underwater, stuck in the frozen slush, and it truly gives the appearance of an apocalyptic ice skating rink. In the video, you can hear car alarms from some of the totaled cars going off, but there is an eerie silence outside of that.
@yenisevilla8 Parecia una película auq lamentable no es haci muchas casas dañadas #DetroitMichigan #parati ♬ sonido original – Yeni Sevilla349
Thankfully, the same creator showed how quickly the city of Detroit has sprung into action, showing bulldozers clearing the ice and slush on their street. The before and after of the two videos are extraordinary, and this creator looks beyond grateful for the quick action of their local government.
@yenisevilla8 Thank you DetroitCity for all the help #DetroitMichigan #parati ♬ sonido original – Yeni Sevilla349
While I can only imagine how traumatic living through this event is, but leave it to the people of the internet to make light of the grave situation. TikTok users left some pretty hilarious comments on that first video, so check a few out before you go.
I know we always say Twitter is the Wild West of social media, but a TikTok comments section is a close second to the Wild West…
“Employer: you’re still coming in though right?”
“If you own skates no reason you can’t make it to work.”
“Every day, the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ comes closer to becoming reality.”
“*Note to self* do not buy any used cars from Detroit.”
“That’s wild, but the car alarm, not the 3-1/2 feet of pure ice, would be my 13th reason.”
“At least they pulled their windshield wipers up.”
“Crime dropped 98.9%.”
“Detroit: It’s literally hell frozen over.”
“Canadians would have a whole rink set up by now.”
“It’s important to leave the wipers up so they don’t freeze to the windshield…”
“Being it’s Detroit, most of these cars prob don’t have insurance.”
“Why does your neighborhood look like it belongs in ‘Shameless.'”
“This looks like an apocalyptic movie.”
Oh, and her neighbor was at least having a good time:
@yenisevilla8 My neighbor iceskating in the backyard@Muzzey1 #southwestdetroit #foryoupage ♬ sonido original – Yeni Sevilla349
