Thursday flooding updates: Salt Lake City, North Ogden

SALT LAKE CITY — Water is still flowing through a neighborhood along 1700 S. in Sugar House, with water flooding onto sidewalks but, for the most part, has been contained after at least 35 homes were evacuated in the late hours of Wednesday night.

It’s a stark contrast from that evacuation scene when hundreds of volunteers gathered to make sandbags and create diversions to keep the running water from Emigration Creek away from homes.

April Brown lives near the flooding in Sugar House and said it’s scary to have a flood just blocks away from her house.

“I think we all knew it was going to happen with the snowpack, but I didn’t expect it here,” she told KSL NewsRadio, ” … it’s kind of terrifying.”

For a good chunk of Thursday, much of 1700 S. was still closed in Sugar House, the flood waters still being diverted down 1500 E. towards a nearby creek. And about 40 homes were still under voluntary evacuation requests.

The city has issued an emergency order after the flooding.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Salt Lake City leaders said they don’t expect water levels to rise any further out of Emigration Creek. And though that water has already flooded 1700 S., Public Utilities Director Laura Briefer said they were able to protect homes.

“Our teams with the city and the county, and all of our emergency management planners were very successful in being able to mobilize, to mitigate any serious impacts from this,” Briefer said.

 

North Ogden flooding update

The flooding in North Ogden had subsided somewhat by Thursday morning, a day after a creek was overflowing in Gardner Canyon onto Mountain Road and Fruitland Drive.

“My parents were woken up by the cops about 4:45 yesterday morning,” Kristen Hart told KSL, “because it (the water) was coming down across the road and coming into their yard.”

As was the case in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night, residents in the North Ogden neighborhood gathered to help people with homes in the path of the rushing water.

Cities across Northern Utah have been battling flooding issues all week.

Simone Seikaly, Don Brinkerhoff, Adam Small and Kira Hoffelmeyer contributed to this report.