Briscoe Family News: Spring Flooding

This is the pasture to the East of Wescor, early Monday morning - not many worries of flooding.

Photo by Karole Sorensen - Tuesday morning

We had a very wet fall, followed by lots and lots of snow all winter and now a rainy/snowy spring. All that water is wonderful for our desert climate and it means that we should have plenty of water to meet our needs through the summer and fill our reservoirs. The problem is that all that snow has to melt and all the rain has to run off and the rivers are already full. This last weekend, it rained foooorrrrr days and now we have rivers that are flowing above flood stage. It is causing a lot of damage to homes, roads and public areas as well as creating a lot of work for public works officials.

On Monday, my friend, Darlene, and I had talked to several people about some of the flooding that was going on along the Blacksmith Fork river so we decided to take a drive and see what was really happening.

We knew that things were going to be interesting when we headed down 1700 S. toward Wescor and the Channel 5 helicopter flew over. Almost the whole RV park across the street from Wescor was under water.

Tuesday afternoon

We tried to drive down Hollow Rd. We got about 3/4 of the way down and then the road was closed off by local residence while they worked at pulling a tree that had fallen in the river and was blocking and backing up the water. We turned around and went the long way around to get to Blacksmith Fork canyon. There were waterfalls coming off the mountain were there had never been waterfalls before, at least that we had ever known of. The river was well over the banks all the way up the canyon. It was amazing to see whole campgrounds underwater - just the tops of the picnic tables showing above the running water. At the Hydropark park, only the hand rails on the bridges are visible.

Later that evening, I drove past Wescor again and the front yard of the building was a lake and there was 4-5 inches of water flowing over the road.

Wescor's front lawn and the road. Photo by Karole Sorensen - Tuesday Morning

When Dennis went down this morning early, there was a big log stuck under the bridge and water was about 8 or 9 inches deep all the way down the street.