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REXBURG, Idaho — Apartment complexes, homes and parts of the BYU-Idaho campus were flooded after a heavy rain and hail storm Tuesday afternoon.
At about 4:30 p.m., Rexburg experienced a heavy downpour and hail storm for approximately 45 minutes, said Rexburg Chief of Police Shane Turman.
“We have a hill and all the water came rushing down off that and flooded down the main part of Rexburg and some residential areas,” Turman said.
The drain systems on the roofs of some of the campus buildings could not handle the amount of water from the storm, so they overflowed and flooded a number of buildings on BYU-Idaho’s campus, Turman said. He did not know how many buildings were affected.
Turman also said that about 20-30 residential homes in the area experienced serious flooding. He said some basements were full of water as well as 2-3 feet of flooding above ground level.
“In some places it was up to about 6 feet deep,” Turman said.
The sewer and drainage infrastructure in the town was also overwhelmed by the water, Turman said.
“There was so much water coming into the drain systems, that it was blowing manhole covers off of streets, and water was shooting up all over the city and then flooding the streets,” Turman said.
Many residents in home and in apartments buildings have been displaced, but Turman said no injuries have been reported so far.
“We have apartment complexes and numerous homes where people will be displaced, at least for tonight,” Turman said. “We’re sheltering them up at the BYU-Idaho events center.”
More information will be posted when it's available.
Contributing: Paul Nelson
