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CACHE COUNTY — Homeowners in seven Cache Valley towns are bracing for another round of storms as they clean up from flooding created by melting snow.
According to Cache County Emergency Management, sheets of water came rolling down the mountains into neighborhoods, and about two dozen homes had some flooding over Saturday and Sunday.
The flooding began when more than a foot and a half of snow from Friday's storm started to melt. Since there was a thick sheet of ice underneath snow, when it melted it left the water no place to go but down.
“That 14 inches of (snow) melted so quickly on top of frozen ground that it had no place to go but run downhill,” said Rick Williams of Cache County Emergency Management.
Margaret and Ryan Poppleton first tried to prevent the water from getting into their house, but the water was coming down too fast.
“It came on pretty quick Saturday,” Margaret said.
The Poppletons said neighbors pitched in with prevention efforts and clean up work after their basement flooded.
“We had, I bet, 20 people here yesterday between the four homes, pumping water, pulling up carpet,” Ryan said.
The Poppletons and their neighbors are working to get as much of this water away from their home as possible.
But soggy mess aside, the Poppletons said the generosity of neighbors seemed to make it worthwhile.
“We had people bringing dinner in and drinks and food. (It) was a really good experience, actually,” Ryan said.
There could be more flooding issues with storms expected later in the week, but homeowners are making sure they’ve done all they can ahead of time: "When it rains, we’re gonna stay ahead of it,” Ryan said.
Cache County Emergency Management said it's working to help homeowners get what they need to get on top of the problem. It have been supplying homeowners with sand bags and putting large pumps in place in case of future flooding.
Still, they're hoping the worst is over.
The hope is that more of that ice will have a chance to melt before another storm comes in, but Cache County and some cities will have crews on stand-by just in case.
