Riverbanks stable amid Dixie rains

ST. GEORGE — Rain continued to drizzle over Utah's already saturated desert country Monday, keeping residents and officials on alert for potential flooding along the Santa Clara and Virgin rivers.

"Water in the Santa Clara is bank to bank and it has been all weekend," said Larry Bulloch, St. George's public works director. "The bank stabilization work is holding well, though, and we're encouraged."

Track hoe work continued Monday along the Santa Clara River in the heavily flood-damaged St. George neighborhood of Green Valley.

"We just want to shore things up a little more," Bulloch said of the area where more than a dozen families watched their homes and property wash downstream during the January floods.

County work crews managed to repair a temporary bridge that provides one of two access routes to the rural town of Gunlock. The only other road out of town is full of deep ruts and requires four-wheel drive, said Gunlock resident Judy Leavitt.

"That'll take you from 30 to 45 minutes," she said of using Sand Cove road. "It's kind of frustrating."

Either way, said Leavitt, folks in town are ready for whatever Mother Nature sends their way.

"Everybody's stocked up on what they need," she said.

Gunlock residents continue to boil water used for cooking and drinking, although most people are also buying bottled water.

During January's floods, the Washington County School District canceled school for a day because of road closures. And while that hasn't happened again, Gunlock students have missed school on occasion because of transportation problems, she said.

"We're really hoping the kids can go to school tomorrow. I think everyone's got cabin fever after the three-day weekend," Leavitt said of the 25 children who live in Gunlock and attend school in St. George. "Ever since the road first went out, the kids have missed a lot of school. It's hard to catch up when you miss that much."

Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said officials expect the temporary bridge into Gunlock to wash out "a few more times" before a permanent structure can be installed.

"We knew that would happen," Smith said of the on-again, off-again status of the bridge, which is really just a massive pipe placed inside a culvert and covered with rock and dirt.