Heavy rains in Washington County caused the Santa Clara River to flood for the second time in three weeks, causing sewers to overflow and other damage.
Continuing dangerous conditions led William J. Alder, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's Salt Lake Forecast Center, to warn that during dry weather early this week, officials should get as much water out of Gunlock Reservoir as possible since more is probably on its way.The heavy rain, running from about 6 to 11 p.m. Sunday, brought the river to flood level within one and a half hours, water rushing into Gunlock Reservoir.
The flooding caused the reservoir to overflow down the red sandstone rocks that serve as a spillway, said Rodney Leavitt, Santa Clara River water commissioner. More erosion occurred in the river channel near Gunlock, and fences were again washed away. Leavitt said the snow was gone so that flooding was not as great as it could have been, but with the reservoir already full, the added water was enough to send it spilling over, causing damage downstream.
In Ivins, the heavy rain cascaded into sewer pipes left open on an unfinished project and washed out 40 to 50 feet of sewer near Mathis Bridge just east of Sunbrook Golf Course. Crews were on the scene, trying to prevent sewage or sewer water from reaching the open stream. Officials said there was no danger of contamination but that the damage must be corrected as soon as possible.
Philip Solomon of the St. George City Power and Water Department said the heavy flow in the Santa Clara River caused one power distribution pole to collapse near the Green Valley-Bloomington area. But no power outage occurred. "We were able to splice the lines to keep power," said Solomon. "If we get damage from this flood, it will be to waterlines that go under the river, and we will not be able to assess this until the water goes down."
Southgate Golf Course, which suffered considerable damage in flooding three weeks ago, was again damaged. The seventh, eighth and ninth holes are covered with mud and water, said Lew Chamberlain, Southgate golf pro. "There is still water flooding across the bridge, so we are playing holes one through six and letting players rotate the first three holes again." Chamberlain estimates the course will lose about $2,000 a day and that repair will require considerable man-hours. "We are just waiting for the water to go down. Until then there isn't much we can do except watch it."
In the Santa Clara area, city official Rich Bovie said a few homes near the river were sandbagged. Also, the continued flooding is beginning to erode banks bordering some hay fields.
Valley areas were subjected to heavy rain for about six hours, while the mountains got the precipitation for twice that long.
"It started in the mountains during the afternoon and then became more widespread by the evening hours," Alder said on Tuesday.
According to Alder, the downpour was heavy, but it wasn't a record-setting cloudburst. The storm dumped 1.4 inches of water on Gunlock, 1.35 on Hurricane, 1,37 on St. George, 1.25 on Springdale, 1.4 on Zion National Park, and 1.52 at Quail Creek.
An area about two miles southeast of Quail Creek registered 1.8 inches of rain.
The storm caused flooding because Washington County has received an unusual amount of rainfall during early March.
"The ground was saturated," he said. New rainwater just poured over the soggy ground and into the rivers.
Alder said he told a local Civil Defense official that "they ought to get as much (water) out of Gunlock as they can. They've got some drier days through this Thursday, then from Friday on it looks kind of wet again."