Big slide, showers and fires slam state
A massive landslide damaged portions of U-14, closing the two-lane highway that eventually connects motorists with Duck Creek, Kane County; Panguitch and Kanab. Clearing out the slide will take more than a week, according to an emergency services official.
"It's a fairly major slide," Charlie Morris, Iron County emergency services director, said Friday afternoon. "The slide started around 9 a.m. this morning, and it was still moving as late as 3 p.m."
Meantime, a band of showers dumped nearly 1 1/2 inches of rain in southern and central Utah late Thursday and into Friday, washing out farmlands and turning more than a dozen homes into islands.
"It's just so flat out here that the valley has to fill up to a certain point before (the water) can move on," said Sevier County Commissioner Ralph Okerlund.
The huge slide in Iron County, estimated to be nearly 400 feet wide, brought tons of dirt, trees and brush down over the road and undercut portions of the asphalt. Much of the debris ended up in Coal Creek, temporarily blocking the water, said Morris.
"That slide came from way up high on the mountain," he said. "It pushed a lot of trees and debris into the creek. Once they moved the debris, it sent about a 3-foot wall of water downstream."
"Coal Creek actually breached its banks near the airport last night," he said. "It ran across Airport Road and came real close to the tanker base building."
Moving the tons of mud, logs and debris will take "a lot of manpower and equipment," said Morris.
"They're afraid more will come down off the mountain if they move it. It could be a week or more before the road is opened," he added.
Rain, coupled with a fire on the mountainside last year, contributed to the landslide, Morris said.
In Sevier County, the Sevier River has been running at full level or higher for the past 10 days, and Okerlund said the community was prepared. He said that at least 50 homes were sandbagged before the waters became threatening.
"It's not fast-running water, just a lot of it," Okerlund said. "Twelve to 15 homes are completely surrounded with several feet of water."
At least 7,000 acres of the county's agricultural lands are underwater, which will require farmers and ranchers to replant a lot of their crops of grains and grasses. A sand and gravel business has been completely washed out, and a local trophy fish ranch is jeopardized.
Because of the tremendous loss expected from the flooding, the entire area has been declared an emergency disaster area. Okerlund said state help will be necessary to cover the costs of rebuilding the roads, replanting fields and combatting the mosquito breeding problem that is expected since a portion of the lands will remain wet throughout the summer.
You can be the first to comment on this story.