People looking at the sinkhole in the parking lot at the Ramada Inn in St. George. Photo: KSL-TV.
ST. GEORGE, Utah — Clean up continues in St. George after flash floods tore through the region Sunday night.
Gov. Gary Herbert toured the damage Monday. Some of the damage includes a sinkhole in the Ramada Inn parking lot that swallowed a car.
“We do know that there is property damage,” Herbert said during the tour. “The city’s working on that and there’s probably 15 or 20 homes that have flooding and we need to see what we can do to help them.”
Herbert also tweeted, “Response teams have done a tremendous job responding to the flooding and enabling roads to be reopened.”
St. George business owner Sam Fisher of Core Concepts Cabinetry described heavy damage from the flash floods to his shop.
“The water came in through the back door,” he said, ruining thousands of dollars of wood. “It’s basically firewood now.”
The wood was being used to build cabinets for a new home.
Fisher said after this happened three different times in recent years, he wants the city to upgrade the storm drainage system near his building.
“I can’t keep absorbing the cost. The first two times I absorbed the cost, but this time’s a little worse,” he said.
Victoria Harris owns a flooring store next door.
“Something has to be done,” she said.
Her business has also been flooded three times. She reports that it has also cost her thousands.
St. George Mayor Jon Pike toured the damage with Herbert Monday.
“This hit so quickly and so hard,” he told reporters.
The mayor did declare a local state of emergency. The St. George flash floods not only damaged homes and businesses, but also student housing at Dixie State University.
The declaration is to not only help residents with damage but to look at preventing further damage.
“We have a significant maintenance, repair, and replacement budget, even more significant in the last few years, because of this very thing, but yes, we are always looking at how we can do things better,” Pike said.
The city says it is looking into the concerns of the local business owners that have sustained damage.