Cleanup is underway in one southern Utah city following severe rainstorms that left some residents with flooded homes.
Washington city saw heavy rainfall yesterday afternoon, says City Police Chief Jim Keith.
“What basically happened is we had about 20 percent of our annual rain fall within a 70 minute period yesterday afternoon around 4 o'clock and so what that equates to is about 2 inches of rain in about an hour,” Keith said.
Six homes were flooded during the sudden downpour, and Keith says many other areas saw flooding in yards. Two households were displaced by the event, and Keith says the Red Cross helped them find temporary housing. No injuries were reported.
“All of that water came down from the northern part of the city where we have a desert reserve area and with it, with the water, it brought all of the debris: rocks and dirt and weeds and things like that.”
Keith says the flooding was not caused by lack of infrastructure.
“The reason that we had the flooding was not because we didn’t have infrastructure in place, it wasn’t because we had things that weren’t functioning properly, it’s because of the intense downpour with the debris and stuff that came with it. It just overwhelmed the system, is what it did,” Keith said.
Roads in Washington City have been cleared with the help of workers from neighboring town Santa Clara. Cleanup elsewhere continues