'Perfect storm' could create logjam on river; Billings puts town on high alert

PROVO — Hundreds of logs along the banks of the Provo River in Provo Canyon could be swept up and sent downriver if a perfect storm situation developed during the spring runoff over the next three weeks.

That and other worst-case scenarios are unlikely, officials say, but Provo Mayor Lewis Billings started Friday to prepare the city just in case. Billings placed Provo on high alert and asked Utah Valley church leaders to invite members to volunteer for rapid response teams.

"While we doubt that such will be necessary, we are now seeking to organize volunteers who can be called upon if needed to support city crews with limited emergency response for tasks such as sandbagging," Billings wrote in a letter sent to clergy of all denominations and to the Welfare Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which mobilizes response from LDS Church members throughout the state.

Provo has invested millions of dollars to enhance its storm-water drainage systems to handle mountain runoff since 1983, when flooding soaked northern Utah. The new Jordanelle Reservoir also provides capacity to help control flows on the Provo River, said Greg Beckstrom, Provo's storm water engineer.

Provo resident Stephen Stewart is among those nervous about the logs upriver, including those at the bottom of the rock slide that closed Bridal Veil Falls this winter.

"They're lying right there ready to go in the river if it rises," he said. "If they all come down the river together and hit an island of trees, we could have an instant dam and flooding anywhere in the city."

The trees are a minor concern to officials.

"We rarely see runoff cause the kind of flow velocity it takes to pick up those logs," Beckstrom said. "It's more likely releases from Deer Creek would cause the increase in flow necessary to do that, and we're informed when that happens, like it did this week, and we monitor it."

Utah County public works chief Clyde Naylor said the six-year drought killed a lot of trees along the river but added it would be expensive to remove the logs, not to mention difficult to obtain permission.

"Basically, in order to get the trees out of the river, except in a flood event, we need permission of the Corps of Engineers, and they're not likely to give it," Naylor said. "Easement issues, environmental issues, fish issues make it pretty hard to do much."

He added there might not be any flooding problems, despite all the snow, the rain, the warnings and the preparations.