Utahns are on edge as flood worries surge

Warm temperatures melted mountain snow in the northern and southern parts of the state Saturday, causing rivers to surge even higher from Utah's Dixie to Utah County.

"It's going to be a long couple of weeks," said Lehi Fire Chief Kerry Evans.

In his city, volunteers were stockpiling sandbags and storing them in a park off Nuttall Drive, which is near Dry Creek. The creek splits at State Street and flooded the lawn at Lehi Elementary school and a business near the school. The creek also flooded Willow Park and a county area in the vicinity of 9550 West and 7300 North, he said.

An irrigation ditch behind a house in Highland became plugged with debris, flooding the basement with as much as 4 feet of water. Marriott's Residence Inn, 252 W. 2230 North in Provo, reported flooding in the yard that backs up to the Provo River, but the water was far enough from the hotel to not be considered a threat, a dispatcher said.

In Pleasant Grove, a spillway at the top of 500 North was threatened. Crews sandbagged it and cleared out ditches, police said.

It was a similar scene in Iron County, where neighborhood volunteers continued to turn out by the dozens to help fill and place sandbags around threatened structures, said Charlie Morris, the county's emergency services director.

"We just keep putting the equipment back in the water to clear out whatever the creek puts in it the day before," said Morris, who was helping residents of a threatened subdivision keep water at bay Saturday afternoon.

"We're done a lot of mitigation work, and I think we're holding our own, but some of these homeowners are being threatened real good," he said of homeowners in MidValley Estates on the west side of Cedar City. "Water got into the septic tank of one homeowner and caused a problem. I'm hoping we'll stay ahead of the water for the next week or so."

But according to the National Weather Service, the heat wave is expected to last for several days, and water flows are expected to stay high for the next several days as snow continues to melt.

A flood watch remains in effect until further notice for Coal Creek in Cedar City, the Sevier River in Garfield County and the north fork of the Virgin River near Zion National Park.