Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Coco Warner reportingIt's been nerly one month since Box Elder County and Brigham City experienced some major flooding.
There was a combination of events that contributed to the flooding-- a release of water from Cutler Dam, and a major rainstorm.
Most of the remaining, standing water in West Brigham City is from Cutler Dam. Officials there say they were forced to release the water back in April after water levels became too high and threatened to overflow.
It was a quick decision that caused some controversy, but city leaders say they learned some important lessons from the experience.
There's still water on the road just west of Brigham City. It's a daily reminder of all the flooding this area experienced this Spring and is still experiencing.
Don Tingey/Brigham City Administrator: "Doing the best we can. There's not a whole lot we can do to prevent the flooding that's happening here, but just watching to make sure it doesn't become a public safety issue."
After heavy rain on the 28th, Box Elder's Cutler Dam, which is NOT a storage facility, was forced to release water. Property owners did sustain damage, but more than that, many wished they had some kind of warning.
City officials say they learned many lessons from this flood.
Don Tingey/Brigham City Administrator: "Being able to communicate with the property owners out here has helped us develop a relationship with them as well ast them to have one with us, so that in the future if things happen we know who to contact and they know who to contact, as well."
Brigham City experienced to most damage along 600 North. The Box Elder Creek undercut the road, exposed some gas lines, and the city was forced to rebuild the road and Questar had to move its gas lines.
The flooding also brought the community together as residents worked hard to save homes along side the creek from flooding.
Don Tingey/Brigham City Administrator: "We've been telling our residents to leave the sandbags in place that we placed on the 28th, leave them in place until we're sure the runoff is at its lowest point and that we're not going to experience any flooding."
And there still is potential for the city to flood. They're keeping an eye on the melting snowpack. The creek could rise again, as we've seen in other areas, and that's why city officials are keeping those sand bags in place.
