SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns in several areas of the state were cleaning up Tuesday after flash floods caused by intense thunderstorms moved over much of the state.

A day after remnants of Hurricane Norbert pounded Arizona and the area between Las Vegas and St. George, heavy storms rolled through the Wasatch Front.

Areas from downtown Salt Lake City through Sandy were hit during the morning commute. Homeowners and business owners from Murray to Taylorsville spent the morning sandbagging or mopping up water. Some residents found their cars in several feet of water when they woke up due to storm drains being clogged.

The system dumped 1.69 inches of water on Bountiful in a single day, with 1.66 inches falling in Springville and 1.48 inches hitting Morgan, according to KSL meteorologists.

Heavy rain pounded the St. George area about 11 a.m. with light rain persisting through the afternoon, causing red dirt and water to rush down Bluff Street and flooding as many as 15 homes with several inches of water, according to the Utah Red Cross.

Rushing flood water hit Randy Schmitz's St. George home, breaking down the door and filling the downstairs apartment with 4 feet of water. Schmitz was using towels in an attempt to stop the water beginning to flow beneath his front door. When he left the room to look for more, everything came crashing in.

Schmitz and his family got out safely, but the bulk of their possessions were caught in the deluge.

"The carpets are soaked with mud, the water line is 4 feet up on the wall. It's destroyed," he said. "We're overwhelmed. We have lost everything. It's heartbreaking."

Residents around the city then began facing the challenge of cleaning up the messy red mud left behind as the flood waters receded.

"When it's red like this, you know that it has really torn up something pretty bad up in the washes," said St. George resident Rich Carter. "Most of the time it's not red and muddy like this all the way across the road."

Ivins and the Santa Clara area were also hit hard, with a rare 3.89 inches of rain recorded in the area Tuesday.

Much of central and southern Utah was under a flash flood watch through Tuesday evening, according to the National Weather Service, with flash flood warnings issued for Kane, Garfield and Washington counties.

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Utahns' smartphone video shows I-15 flood waters surrounding vehicle

A group of Utah friends hoping to escape the flash floods in Las Vegas instead encountered a more terrifying situation on I-15 in the Moapa Valley Monday, with a raging river of brown flood waters laying waste to the interstate.

In Zion National Park, all slot canyons, including The Narrows, were closed when the park saw one of the highest river levels it has experienced in 100 years, park officials reported. The Virgin River rose from 174 to 4,790 cubic feet per second in a matter of hours, flooding Scenic Drive and the Zion Mount Carmel Highway and closing the park for over three hours.

Tuesday afternoon, the Washington School District announced that all afternoon preschool and kindergarten classes would be canceled due to flooding and road closures. That included Santa Clara, Coral Cliffs, Arrowhead, Red Mountain, Sunset and Dixie Sun.

As of Tuesday evening, Holladay and Orem had received nearly an inch of rain in a 24-hour period while Parleys Canyon and west Payson had received over an inch of rain. And Zion National Park and Leeds had received more than 2 inches of rain.

Tuesday's rain came a day after Phoenix experienced record rainfall that brought much of the city to a halt. Schools were closed in some areas, marking the first time some residents could ever remember school being canceled due to weather.

Contributing: Pat Reavy

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