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NEWS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT Transcript of news conference held on Thursday, April 28th at 2:30pm in Brigham City on flooding. Brigham City Mayor Lou Ann Christensen
"Flooding has been localized to areas surrounding the creek on the west side. Four to seven homes have been affected. Two families have been displaced... and they're being located... and the city's working with the Red Cross who has set up lodging in local hotels."
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| Brigham City leaders speak to reporters. Photo by KSL Radio's Ben Winslow. | |
"We're alerting two CERT teams, which is about 24 people, to be available as assistance is needed."
"Previously, efforts made by city personnel by clearing debris from the creek has minimized potential damage. Manpower from Willard, Box Elder County search and rescue scuba team, Weber County, the LDS Church, Red Cross, local construction personnel, and businesses are all actively participating in the remediation of this effort."
"We appreciate all of these efforts including the local CERT teams and volunteers from our area who are also responding. We especially appreciate our city staff who are working tirelessly to address this. And, we're in good hands because we have made many plans as far as how to handle this situation."
Brigham City Emergency Services Director Jim Buchanan
"Thank you mayor. As the mayor has eluded to early this morning we received a considerable amount of water. As a result of that the Box Elder Creek left its banks in the area where many of our homes have been constructed."
"With the help of the city staff, the departments that the mayor has mentioned from outside the city with the Box Elder County, the State of Utah, and our many citizens we've been able to reclaim much of the creek."
"We have done a little remodeling of the creek. It doesn't show the same as it did on the original map, but we have gotten most of the water out of most of the homes which means we still have pumping to do. We still have homes we have to do in and clean up. "
"But, we think we have the creek back where it needs to go. We're monitoring the Mantua reservoir. We have a crew up there. We've had them up there since 6 this morning. We're monitoring the amount of water that's going into the Mantua Reservoir. We're also monitoring, and our city engineers in route to give us a professional opinion on the Mayor's Pond, which is a holding pond just east of the city. It's designed to sort of equalize the water that comes out of the mountain before it comes into the creek."
"So, we're monitoring that but as a precaution we're trying to address should we need to monitor people, what areas would we evacuate, how we notify them, where will we place them, how long will they be out of their homes? Those are things we're addressing now."
(Copyright 2005 by KSL Newsradio 1160.)
