Dixie braces for weekend flooding

ST. GEORGE — Record levels of snowpack are poised and ready to melt in the mountains above Utah's Dixie, putting residents on alert for possible flooding this weekend.

"There's a lot of water up there," said Vane Campbell of the mountains above Richfield, Cedar City and St. George. "If we have really warm weather for the next 10 to 12 days like they're talking about, we're going to have some flooding."

Campbell's work with the Natural Resources Conservation Service is geared toward protecting southern Utah's rivers and watersheds. Many of the large rivers and streams in the area are already lapping at their banks and carrying tremendous amounts of water, he said.

"Even though a lot has been done to protect areas that were damaged before, there are still a lot of places that are really vulnerable," he said.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for portions of south-central Utah, including the upper Sevier River basin to the Piute Reservoir, Coal Creek near Cedar City, the Beaver River drainage, and the north fork of the Virgin River until further notice.

Adam Stiles, meteorologist with St. George-based KCSG-TV, said temperatures would be about 10 degrees above normal for this time of year.

"We've got a widespread warming trend with temperatures significantly above normal and record snowpack levels," said Stiles. "We're going to see it get real hot, real quick."

One of the greatest concerns for area officials doesn't involve the potential for flooding, however. The bigger threat, according to Campbell and others, is the fear of erosion along riverbanks already compromised by January's floods and subsequent high water flows.

"All the vegetative protective material is gone. There's going to be pure erosion," Campbell said. "There are probably 100 more homes, businesses and things like infrastructure along the Virgin River that are hanging out there and vulnerable to erosion."

Dean Cox, Washington County's emergency services director, said his worries mirror those voiced by Campbell.

"The (Virgin) river is changing its location right now. I get calls every day from people who are worried about it," said Cox.

"Many of the stabilizing structures along the river are gone, and we're getting some tremendous peaks in river flow," said Cox.

Gauges placed along the Virgin River measured a peak flow of around 3,500 cubic feet per second on Tuesday. That's considerably more than the average peak flow of 80 cfs to 90 cfs over the past 30 years, Cox said.

"If we get flows that are up around 5,000 cfs to 5,500 cfs, that could rival what we saw on the Santa Clara River in January," he said. "I think we could see some erosion. A lot of people think the Virgin River is capable of moving property and infrastructure. We've got some wet, slick snow up in the mountains. It's ripe and ready to cut loose."

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E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com