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“I’m a dentist with a farming habit,” he said with a smile outside his home on Thursday.
One of those lessons is that the land bounces back with patience and persistence — even when faced with rushing, roaring water that, at times, seemed unstoppable a decade ago.
Looking at the same landscape now, Ence sees new life.
“As I look 10 years later, we do see the new trees coming in.”
Peak water flows in the 2005 flood were estimated at 6,000 cubic feet per second.
The dramatic unfolding of the situation showed homes crumbling into the roaring river as the water completely overwhelmed the city’s infrastructure and surrounding farmland. It’s a sight that comes to mind quickly for Santa Clara’s mayor.
“The devastation of the flood to the community, the impact to people that was happening right before your eyes, watching homes fall into the river and not being able to do anything was a feeling that I won’t forget,” said Mayor Rick Rosenberg. At the time, he was a member of the City Council.
Community leaders and volunteers worked around the clock doing what they could to provide relief and offer support.
“The devastation was one thing, but the support and outpouring of love and assistance that came from the community was the other thing you’ll never forget,” Rosenberg stated.
Santa Clara used a portion of disaster relief funds to construct a channel that helps keep the water level in the river contained. Near Ence’s home the city and Washington County replaced a sewer line that the 2005 flood destroyed and provided extra protection by building up the river bank with large black rocks.
The area has had two floods since 2005 that were both declared federal disasters, and Rosenberg said the modifications helped and the channel held up very well. Still, for Ence, there is something to be said about weathering the storm in the southern Utah community, a place his great-grandfather helped settle.
“Rebuilding was the right thing to do. There’s no place like Santa Clara, so we can’t leave. We’ve got to stay.”
