Dixie storms bring a flood of support

ST. GEORGE — At any given hour you can see them stopped along Dixie Drive at the edge of the Santa Clara River as it cuts its way through the south side of town. Sightseers by the dozens — and more than that on weekends — pull over and step out of their cars to see with their own eyes the perfect mess left by St. George's perfect storm.

It's been more than two months now since snowflakes began falling silently on Friday, Jan. 7, laying down a heavy blanket of white on a desert landscape where, as the Dixie Chamber of Commerce saying goes, "the summer sun spends the winter."

Warm rains and warm temperatures followed, melting the snow in town as well as farther upstream, resulting in a flood in the Santa Clara and Virgin rivers that uprooted 100-year-old trees and rearranged farms, housing developments, highways, golf courses — and more than a few horses and cows — and caused in excess of $150 million of destruction.

"We had our own perfect storm," says David Watson as he sits in his home on Bridge Point Way, barely out of view of the sightseers with their video cameras out on Dixie Drive. "It was just devastating."

Less than a half-mile from Watson's place, several houses lie dangling on the edge of the riverbank, now a good 50 feet and more from the flowing water. Some of them are half gone. Others are long gone.

"We have some 20 homes and 20 families still displaced," says David. "We're doing what we can to help them."

It's too bad the curiosity-seekers can't videotape the insides of people's hearts. That's the best view of the flood's aftermath.

David Watson is one of a small army of people who organized the Virgin River Santa Clara River Flood Relief Foundation just days after the flood. The group elected David, a former state senator, president, and he has been able to oversee fund-raising efforts that have resulted, so far, in slightly more than $1.5 million in donations. That's halfway to the foundation's goal of $3 million, a figure deemed to be sufficient to at least put those people who lost their primary residences back onto something approaching solid ground.

The group's biggest success is the publication of "Portraits of Loss, Stories of Hope," a 135-page book filled with photographs and articles recounting the perfect storm and flood that followed.

The book's first run of 10,000 copies sold out in 20 days. A second run of 5,000 is expected to be available to the public by April 15. At a suggested donation of $35 per book — some have fetched as much as $1,000 — nearly $500,000 already has been raised, with more undoubtedly on the way.