(New Buffalo, MI) - A New Buffalo man says he actually felt the 20 foot waves slamming into the Lake Michigan shoreline this week.  Ted Grzywacz said he once had 300 feet of ground between his house and shoreline but roughly 40 feet is all that’s left because of erosion the past few years.

 

Grzywacz, president of the New Buffalo Shoreline Alliance, said the waves were vicious during the height of the storm on Monday which brought strong northerly winds and some lake effect snow.  “My house was actually shaking when the waves hit the shore,” he said.

 

Grzywacz said he and his neighbors have spent millions of dollars having large rocks and other

reinforcements placed on the shoreline to help hold back the lake.  He indicated the work done in front of his house held up pretty well, but other lakefront property owners are having to shore up the improvements to their seawalls weakened by the constant pounding of the high waves.

 

Gryzwacz said the lake, being at a record high level, is just one factor causing the erosion.  He said the main problem is the break wall at New Buffalo preventing sand, migrating west underneath the water, from naturally replenishing the beaches in front of their homes.

 

He said beaches reduce the size of the waves, which are now slamming into the shoreline at full height.