Sariah Israelsen: You're listening to USU extension educational highlight. I'm Sariah Israelsen and joining me today is Stephanie Carlson, USU Extension assistant professor, to talk about flooding and what we can do to prepare. Welcome, Stephanie.
Stephanie Carlson: Thank you. It's nice to join you.
Sariah Israelsen: So I just wanted to talk a little bit about what should people be most worried about?
Stephanie Carlson: I would say that you need to ask yourself, are you ready for a disaster, and you do that by making sure that your property insurance is up to date, you have if you have to evacuate you have a 72 hour kit that is readily available and up to date, that you have a way to communicate with others and let them know where you are and how you are in the event of an emergency. And do a home hazard hunt, make sure that everything is prepared for any kind of an event.
Sariah Israelsen: Other than what you just mentioned, is there anything else that people can do to prepare for a flood?
Stephanie Carlson: To prepare for a flood, I would make sure that your sump pump is working. And in the event that you need to use it make sure that you pump the water out to the gutter, not into your sewer system.
Move all of your valuables to higher ground and acquire sandbags. A lot of cities are offering them right now and know how to fill them up, where to place them and how to do that safely. Another important thing is to know where your utilities are so that you can turn off your water, gas and electric if there is a need.
And here for your power outages to deal with any kind of stop in utilities that you might have.
Sariah Israelsen: So, what should people do if a flood actually happens?
Stephanie Carlson: Well, if a flood actually happens, the disease control and prevention report that over half of all flood related drownings occur when a vehicle is driven into a hazardous floodwater. So make sure you turn around and don't drown. What that means is that a car can be swept away in as little as two feet of water.
And a person can be swept away in as little as six inches of water. And that is not very much and a lot of people will approach water and say well, it's not very deep, I can make it across. Make sure that you just turn around and be safe overall.
If you have something or someone that has fallen into the water, don't jump in it is very risky and find a different way to deal with that issue. If your card is in flowing water than stay in it, and if it does fill up, then just escape to the roof until you are in a way to evacuate it.
Make sure that you get information from reliable sources not just from the internet at large. Both places that would be like news agencies city government, there is a reverse 911 system called Code read within Weaver County where if you register your cell phone, they will call you in the event of a need to communicate with you about emergencies in your area.
You can monitor the NOAA Weather Radio and their websites and follow instructions by any public officials. There are a lot of warnings right now. And it's important to just follow their information move to higher ground.
So, if your area or your home is starting to receive high water, then move to an area that is safe, and stay away from any downed power lines that might be impacted because of this risk.
Sariah Israelsen: Stephanie, thank you so much for that information that is going to be super helpful right now.
Stephanie Carlson: You're welcome.
And thank you all for listening to USU extension educational highlight. If you want any more information on floods or how to prepare for them, go to
Utah Flood Hazards | Utah flood hazard mitigation
