Rain increases flood woes

PROVO — A flood watch remained Monday night for American Fork River and Dry Creek.

The flood watch in Utah County has been in effect since late last week and will continue to be "until further notice," according to a statement from the National Weather Service.

The weather service said the rain that fell Monday was expected to cause the American Fork River to rise for 24 hours.

From Sunday night through Monday morning, the harsh, wet weather caused minor flooding. And, early Monday, marble-size hail fell in several cities.

Spanish Fork received 0.4 inches of rain and Provo received 0.74 inches Monday, according to data collected by Brigham Young University.

The rain caused one garage flood and one basement flood in the northeast area of Provo, said Greg Beckstrom, the city's deputy public works director.

"We had over an inch of rain in that area of town this morning, rain and hail," he said.

In Orem near 1300 South and 1300 West, some condos flooded as a result of clogged storm drains. In Springville, clogged drains caused a street flood, according to public safety dispatchers.

A thunderstorm dumped nearly 4 inches of water in Tooele within a few hours, flooding some basements and cutting power to 3,000 houses Monday.

Tooele saw the greatest amount of rain from a brief but intense storm that drenched northern Utah on Monday morning. The National Weather Service reported 3.71 inches in Tooele, 1.58 inches in South Ogden, .87 inches in Farmington, .50 inches in Springville, and .30 inches in Salt Lake City.

The storm "just happened to be focused over Tooele," said Pete Wilensky, a lead forecaster for the service. "That county happened to get hit with a couple of particularly heavy cores."

Volunteers scrambled to sandbag homes along 700 South in Tooele, which was serving as the de facto waterway from spring runoff that overflowed from Settlement Canyon reservoir.

County spokesman Wade Mathews said houses throughout the city and county had water in their basements, with as much as 30 inches reported in one home and sewage backing up in others.

"It was a flash flood, basically, like you would experience in a canyon somewhere," Mathews said. "The storm burst hit us so quickly that it caught a lot of residents off guard. The damage was done before we could even start loading up sandbags."

The lightning that accompanied the Memorial Day drencher damaged equipment at a substation in Stansbury Park and knocked out power to 3,000 houses. All had their power back Monday afternoon, a Utah Power spokeswoman said.

Several hundred volunteers filled and placed sandbags. Tooele Mayor Charlie Roberts called them indispensable.