Waves crashing against the jetty at South Haven, Mich., where water levels on Lake Michigan are breaking records.
Credit: Worldwide/Newscom

GRAND HAVEN, MICHIGAN — Streets are flooded in “Coast Guard City, USA,” and the maritime rescue force is responding to dangerous events not seen for decades on Lake Michigan.

Boats ramming breakwalls and other objects hidden below the lake surface. People and pets nearly swept off piers by crashing waves. Swimmers fighting riptides that have drowned 30 people so far this year. Beach walkers becoming trapped between pounding surf and cliff-like dunes.

Welcome to the nation’s “Third Coast,” where climate change is fueling conditions that have turned the Great Lakes into the erratic high seas of the Midwest.

High water here has swallowed shorelines and is advancing toward homes and businesses along a 100-mile stretch from Grand Haven to New Buffalo.

Lake Michigan broke its high-water record of 33 years a few weeks ago, topping at 582.18 feet on July 23, according to NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. That’s 2.8 feet higher than the mean July […]