HURRICANE, Washington County — A thunderstorm dumped nearly 2 inches of rain over Ivins, near St. George, early Monday morning, clogging city streets and flooding at least three houses with nearly 4 feet of water.
Emergency workers rushed to place sandbags around homes just east of Main Street in an effort to divert the water. Debris clogged the city's drainage system, adding to the soggy mess.
Volunteers from neighboring cities rushed to help residents, and cleanup will take a few days, said Ivins Police Chief Wade Carpenter.
"It could have been worse. We probably saved about eight other homes by diverting water into a nearby street," Carpenter said.
A flash flood warning issued by the National Weather Service for southwestern Utah expired around 11:30 a.m., although storm clouds remained overhead.
Lightning also struck the flagpole on the Hurricane city office building just after 7 a.m., causing a small fire inside a storage closet and damaging computers and audio equipment near the council chambers.
"We had folks in the building and they felt a jolt," said Hurricane city manager Clark Fawcett, adding that a volunteer firefighter was among those at the building. "By the time I got there they had fire trucks and firefighters everywhere."
Although the lightning strike damaged the building's electrical system, not every computer was damaged, Fawcett said.
"It was spotty. It blew out all the exterior lighting, so we've had electricians here all day," he said. "We've had a number of computers out for repairs, but we were able to open for business by around 9 a.m., but we'll have to replace some of the computers, though."
Rainfall around the county ranged from 1.77 inches in Ivins to an inch in St. George to 1 1/2 inches in Zion National Park. Water levels rose quickly in the Virgin River, said park spokesman David Eaker, but there were no weather-related accidents.
"We had some nice waterfalls, though," he said.
Washington County emergency services director Dean Cox took an early morning assessment of damages near Gunlock and said it wasn't as bad as he feared.
"There was a lot of water, but the drainage systems contained it really well," Cox said. "We're getting ready to repair the bridge into Gunlock, so we were concerned about it."
Gunlock residents have endured numerous hardships over the past few years from rising floodwaters and have been cut off from the rest of the county following thunderstorms like the one that pounded Washington County on Monday.
A flash flood warning was in effect for all of Kane County until 6:30 p.m. Monday, and flooding is expected to occur in dry washes, slot canyons and small streams in Garfield County, according to an alert issued by the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com