Beach Erosion in Holland, MI: A Real, Documented 2019 Event
Holland's beach erosion risk isn't driven by the same mechanism as an ocean beach's -- there's no chronic sea-level rise pushing a shoreline back year over year the same way, and no hurricane storm surge carving a beach out in a single landfall. It's driven by something specific to the Great Lakes: multi-year water-level cycles that can push Lake Michigan to near-record highs, and when a high-water period coincides with a strong storm, the erosion can be dramatic and fast. Holland has a real, well-documented example of exactly that from October 2019.
How Great Lakes Erosion Actually Works
Lake Michigan's water level rises and falls through documented multi-year cycles rather than sitting at a fixed elevation -- a pattern tracked by NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over decades. When the lake is at a low point in its cycle, beaches are wider and dune bluffs sit further from the water's edge; when the lake is at a high point, wave action reaches much closer to (or directly into) the base of dune bluffs, and the same storm that would be harmless at low water can cause serious erosion at high water. This is a fundamentally different erosion mechanism than an ocean beach's combination of chronic sea-level rise and periodic hurricane storm surge.
That distinction matters for how a buyer should think about erosion risk here: it's not a steady, predictable per-year erosion rate the way some ocean beaches are studied and reported, but a cyclical risk that can be low for years and then suddenly severe when a high-water period and a strong storm coincide. Holland's most recent, clearest example of that combination is well documented and worth understanding in detail.
The 2019-2020 Record-High Water Period
Lake Michigan-Huron (the two lakes are hydrologically connected and measured together) neared its all-time record water level through 2019, reaching 581.92 feet in July 2019 -- just 0.43 feet below the historic 1986 record high. The lake stayed elevated into 2020, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has documented that record or near-record high water levels during this period directly increased wave-impact height and accelerated erosion across the Great Lakes shoreline generally.
Holland experienced that acceleration directly and specifically: reporting from this period documented Holland losing roughly 50 feet of beach in a single year during the high-water stretch. That is not a projected or modeled figure -- it's a reported, on-the-ground measurement of real shoreline loss tied to the documented 2019 water-level spike.
The October 2019 Storm: 10 to 20 Feet of Bluff in 12 Hours
The clearest single erosion event in Holland's recent record happened in October 2019, when a storm combined the near-record lake level with an additional storm surge of roughly a foot and waves measured over 10 feet on buoys in the zone between Holland and South Haven. Together, that combination eroded 10 to 20 feet of dune bluff in a single 12-hour period -- a dramatic, fast-moving loss of shoreline that happened not over a season or a year, but essentially in one overnight storm.
This is the specific, sourced event that should anchor how a buyer thinks about Lake Michigan bluff erosion risk in Holland: it demonstrates that under the right (or wrong) combination of lake level and storm timing, a genuinely large amount of bluff can be lost very quickly, not gradually. It's a real risk category, distinctly different from -- but no less serious than -- the storm-surge erosion an ocean-coast hurricane produces.
What Determines a Specific Property's Erosion Exposure
Erosion exposure on Holland's Lake Michigan shoreline depends heavily on the specific parcel: how much bluff-top setback the structure has from the current bluff edge, whether the property has existing shoreline hardening (riprap, a seawall, a bulkhead) permitted through EGLE's Part 325 process, the specific soil and bluff composition at that location, and simple luck in terms of which stretch of shoreline the strongest waves happen to hit during the next high-water storm event. This page does not state a specific current erosion rate or bluff-setback recommendation for any individual Holland-area parcel.
A property on Lake Macatawa, by contrast, is more sheltered from this specific direct wave-driven erosion mechanism, since it isn't exposed to the open lake's wave action the same way Lake Michigan frontage is -- though it still carries lake-level-driven flood exposure through the channel connection, covered on this site's flood-zones page for Holland. The waterfront-vs-non page for Holland goes into more depth on how this distinction should factor into a buyer's choice between the two waterfront tiers.
Where Lake Levels Stand Now, and What This Page Can't Tell You
Lake Michigan's water level has continued to fluctuate since the 2019-2020 high, as it does through its documented multi-year cycles -- but this page does not state a current, up-to-date lake-level figure, since that number changes regularly and any figure stated here would likely be outdated by the time it's read. NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publish ongoing, current Great Lakes water-level data, and that's the actual authoritative source to check for the present situation rather than relying on this page's historical account of the 2019-2020 event.
This page also does not assign an erosion-risk rating to any specific Holland parcel, and does not state whether a given property's current bluff setback is adequate for future storm events. A site-specific geotechnical or coastal-engineering assessment, not a general market-research page, is the appropriate source for that determination on any specific property under serious consideration.
What to Actually Do Before Buying Lake Michigan Frontage
Given this documented history, a buyer seriously considering Lake Michigan bluff-top property in the Holland area should check the property's current bluff setback against local building-department requirements, ask whether any existing shoreline hardening has current, valid EGLE permits (covered on this site's seawall-bulkhead page for Holland), check current Lake Michigan water-level data and trend at NOAA or the Army Corps of Engineers, and confirm directly with a Michigan-licensed insurance agent whether the specific homeowners policy under consideration covers erosion damage at all, given the standard earth-movement exclusion covered on this site's coastal-insurance page for Holland.
None of this is offered to suggest Lake Michigan frontage in Holland is uninsurable or unbuyable -- it's offered as the honest, documented risk picture a buyer should weigh with real numbers rather than either general reassurance or general alarm. The 2019 event is real and serious; it is also, per the documented multi-year cycle pattern, not a permanent or constant condition.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' own news coverage ("High Water Impacts on Coastal Erosion") for the general mechanism connecting record/near-record Great Lakes water levels to increased wave-impact height and accelerated shoreline erosion; Weather.com's May 2020 reporting on record Great Lakes water levels for the July 2019 581.92-foot reading (0.43 feet below the 1986 record) and the broader 2019-2020 high-water timeline; and regional reporting on the October 2019 Lake Michigan storm event for Holland's documented 50-feet-of-beach-loss figure and the 10-to-20-feet-of-dune-bluff-erosion-in-12-hours figure, tied to buoy-measured wave heights over 10 feet in the Holland-to-South Haven zone. This page does not state a current Lake Michigan water level, a current or projected erosion rate for any specific Holland parcel, or a specific bluff-setback recommendation for any property -- none of that was independently confirmed for this research pass, and lake levels change regularly. Verify current Great Lakes water-level data at NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and get a site-specific geotechnical or coastal-engineering assessment for any specific Lake Michigan bluff-top property before purchase. Nothing on this page is engineering, insurance, or legal advice.