BOUNTIFUL — Devastating windstorms this week left such widespread damage across northern Utah, it was clear residents were in need of backup to help pick up the pieces.
Now, they’re getting it from the Utah National Guard.
The historic weather packed wind gusts in excess of 90 mph that felled decades-old trees and knocked out power to tens of thousands of northern Utah residents, while leaving behind quite a mess for residents in four counties to wade through.
“It’s our job. It’s our duty to help out the Utah citizen whenever they need our help.” — Capt. Mark Hruza, Utah Army National Guard 116th Engineering Company
So enormous was the level of natural destruction, Gov. Gary Herbert Thursday called on members of the Utah National Guard to “assist local and civil agencies with debris removal and community cleanup operations within the affected areas” through Sept. 14.
“It’s our job to kind of help out the state in any earthmoving or heavy equipment-type operations. We’ve done a little bit of debris cleaning back in 2011 and we’ve also done flood responses with landslides and (events) like that,” said Capt. Mark Hruza with the Utah Army National Guard 116th Engineering Company. “It’s our job. It’s our duty to help out the Utah citizen whenever they need our help.”
Meanwhile, Rocky Mountain Power stated Friday that power has been restored to 80% of customers who were impacted by the storm outage, but just under 35,000 households are still without power. Spokesman Spencer Hall said the utility is “acutely aware” of the magnitude of the problem many Utahns are facing and the company is working diligently to get the issue resolved in the next few days — or sooner, if possible.
“We really appreciated the way Utahns have looked out for each other and shown us a lot of support as we’ve worked together,” he said. “This is an emergency event and we’ve got the National Guard coming in (with) emergencies declared in Salt Lake City and in the state. We’re working side by side with a lot of agencies to try to get everybody back up and running.”
The last time Utah’s citizen soldiers were called out following a natural disaster was December 2011 when hurricane-force winds howled in Davis County, toppling thousands of trees and power lines, cutting paths of devastation along city streets and damaging emergency communication systems.
The winds began in the early morning hours of Dec. 1 and did not abate for nearly two days, forcing schools to close and highways to idle. Households and businesses from Salt Lake City north to Ogden were plunged into darkness in the chill of early December — some for days — while crews maneuvered through the wreckage of felled limbs and snapped trunks to reach power poles in backyards.
This time around, the damage was similarly widespread and severe, the one major difference being the warmer temperatures of early September.
The guard units spread out into three groups of about 30 soldiers to tackle the massive cleanup job already underway as residents worked to clear the streets and yards of their neighborhoods, hauling away tons of tree debris and green waste. Hruza’s group was assigned to a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located on Orchard Drive and Wicker Lane in Bountiful.
“Right now, we’re kind of split between three locations. Here we’re going to have six dump trucks and we’re going to have the front-end loader that’s going to scoop up the material, put it in the dump trucks, and we’re going to haul it off the (final dump) site,” he explained.
Hruza said his company is unfazed by the enormity of the cleanup project, knowing they have the skill to accomplish their given task.
“Nothing’s too big for us. A common phrase in the army engineer branches is ‘laisse-nous essayer.’ It’s a French term which means ‘let us try’ and it goes back to the American Revolution,” he explained. “It means when all other people fail, send the engineers on it. They’ll figure it out. Let us try. We’ll figure it out. We’ll get it done.”
The guardsmen will spend the next couple of days transporting green waste accumulated and stowed at designated collection spots scattered across areas impacted by the storm.
Craig Galloway, a former Latter-day Saint bishop and Bountiful resident, was asked to coordinate with the city and the national guard to manage the cleanup project. He recalled the last time such an effort was undertaken in 2011, when civic leaders were not as prepared.
“On Dec. 1 of 2011 when we had the last big storm hit, we had a lot of damage. I think Bountiful High got used (and) people just started dumping (green waste) there because the wait at the Bountiful area refuse dump was about five miles long,” he said. “It was taking an hour to an hour and a half waiting in line to get to it. We learned from 2011, so this (emergency management plan) was done to help alleviate that big problem out there.”
Davis County Emergency Manager Chad Monroe commended residents for their cooperative attitude in helping to facilitate the cleanup in an orderly fashion.
“The public’s really pulled together. We have a great community, obviously. Everybody’s out helping their neighbors,” he said. “If you drive through the neighborhoods, you’ll see people banding together, giving out water, loading flatbeds, loading trucks and bringing it all to these sites or running them to the landfills. It is really impressive and it gives you a lot of pride actually in your community.”
He, too, recalled the complexities responding to the windstorm in 2011. But this storm was even more challenging, he said.
“There’s a lot more debris this time and the windstorm was even wider spread, so more cities and more people have been affected. We’re going to keep on going until it’s done. We ask the community to just be patient, be kind, lend a helping hand,” Monroe said. “Everyone’s doing the best they can. You can imagine the undertaking for a county this size and all these people that are helping. It’s been great though. We’re really working well together.”