GARDEN CITY, Rich County — Garden City residents and volunteers filled sandbags Friday after city officials asked for volunteers to help with flooding.
The request came after a Garden City police officer discovered about 4:45 a.m. that a 10- to 15-foot section of a canal had breached, sending water into the Harbor Village subdivision, mainly along Raspberry Patch Road. At least three homes suffered damage and at least a dozen more were threatened, according to Garden City Fire Chief Mike Wahlberg.
Garden City, which sits next to Bear Lake, posted on its Facebook page that employees from the Public Works Department would be filling sandbags and asked volunteers to bring shovels, sand and sandbags to help.
The city was originally charging residents 30 cents per sandbag but later announced the bags would be free.
Also Friday, other parts of Cache County continued to battle flooding that has affected communities for several days.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced it was monitoring Hyrum Dam "due to unseasonably high reservoir inflow and likelihood of increased releases from the dam."
The bureau also issued a level one Emergency Action Plan Response as a precaution.
"This action is a precautionary and responsible measure to ensure proper communication among response and management agencies, as well as appropriate monitoring during this high inflow event,” said Wayne Pullan, Reclamation’s Provo area office manager. “There is no foreseeable threat at this time to public safety or property.”
Bureau officials stated that a level one meant that there were "unusual conditions" at the dam that required additional monitoring.
Hyrum Dam and Reservoir are located on the Little Bear River, approximately 9 miles southwest of Logan.
In Wellsville, a section of a road was reportedly washed away near 2400 West and 1800 North.
Residents in a subdivision near 880 E. 675 North in Wellsville were pumping water out of their basements late Thursday night. But many say the challenge is the ground in the area is already saturated.
"I think there’s about 2 to 3 inches of water depending on where you are in the basement," said Kason Suchow, whose basement flooded. "There was a lot of stuff in cardboard boxes on the ground. Most of that has taken a lot of water damage, and most of that has probably been ruined. I’m worried about the fact that it’s an unfinished basement, all the wood getting water damage and having there be issues with the studs."
Suchow said he had a pump and Shop-Vacs in his basement. But he expects with this year's heavy snowpack, his basement will continue to see more water. Still, he said he's taking it in stride.
"It’s life. It’s what happens when you get a ton of weather. It’s given us reason to kind of sort through all this junk and throw away anything that is damaged or old or hasn’t seen use in years. Pick up and move on. I mean, it sucks. But it happened and we gotta see what we need to do to get it fixed and cleaned up and move on from there,” he said.
The Cache County Sheriff's Office announced Friday that sandbags are available at the county jail for residents who live in unincorporated areas.
Nibley officials posted information on sandbagging stations on the cit's website and tips on what to do if runoff fills a resident's window wells.
"Please do not pump water into sewer system, high risk of back up into homes. Route excess water to streets where we have greater capacity," Nibley officials posted.
In Box Elder County, the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge posted on its Facebook page Friday that West Forest Street, located 2 miles west of I-15, was closed due to flooding.
"There is no access to Refuge Auto Tour. We will still host Eagle Day (Saturday) at the Wildlife Education Center from 11-3," the group wrote.
Contributing: Brian Champagne