FOUNTAIN GREEN, Sanpete County — While the population was still busy filling sandbags on Monday and distributing them in the districts already affected by the floods, heavy rains occurred again for the second day in a row, causing further flooding.
The city already had its hands full cleaning up after Sunday’s storm, which brought about three inches of rain in an hour.
Official estimates Monday said more than half and possibly as many as two-thirds of the town’s 1,200 residents were affected in one way or another by Sunday’s floods.
At least five families, possibly more than 10, were left homeless by the flooding, say officials and administrators at the American Red Cross in Fountain Green.
City Councilor Alyson Aagard Strait said the city government is still working to assess the total damage by checking in with residents individually.
“Something like this never happens in Fountain Green,” Strait told KSL TV. “Many families are devastated.”
The threat of further rain on Monday prompted a small group of residents to gather in the parking lot in front of City Hall to help fill and distribute sandbags.
Coming to help others
“There are people here who have been affected by flooding themselves and are helping others who are less fortunate,” Strait said. “And as you can see from the weather, everyone is afraid it will happen again.”
As feared, the city was again hit by heavy rain for about twenty minutes on Monday evening, causing further flooding on streets and in some basements in the west of the city.
“More rain is coming right now, making things even worse,” said Benjamin Donner, executive director of the American Red Cross in Central and Southern Utah.
Further down the street, where firefighters were helping pump water out of a basement, resident Kendra Miller told KSL TV she got soaked while trying to protect her belongings and her unprotected basement from the second wave of rain.
“We laid out plywood covers, things that we could lay tarps on to prevent the second round from coming back to where the empty window is.”
Miller said she had just scheduled fill material to be delivered to her property on Monday, which further complicates matters.
“It’s going to be a while before we can actually let it dry and landscape,” Miller said.
Donner said his organization is working to provide assistance to displaced families and a place for them to stay.
He urged any community members needing assistance to call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767).
“We just want to make sure no one suffers in silence,” Donner said.
