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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) -- A federal agency says prevention measures taken in Washington County since 2005 likely saved the area more than $179 million in flood damages during a recent storm that swelled rivers beyond flood stage.
Twenty homes were lost during the 2005 floods. Since then a $57 million prevention effort was undertaken under the Emergency Watershed Protection Act and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The St. George Spectrum reports the work by Natural Resource Conservation Services took two years. It included restoring and hardening riverbanks, clearing debris and removing non-native species, such as tamarisk, to restore the channel's water-carrying capabilities.
"The stuff we installed last time held up really well," said NRCS State Conservation Engineer Bronson Smart, one of a half dozen staff who monitored the 2010 storm impact over the past week. "We were really glad to see that."
NRCS estimates the post-2005 works saved 450 individual properties and 30 businesses from possible damage in the 2010 storm, despite some flooding.
Preliminarily, Smart estimates roughly $20 million will be needed for flood recovery projects that would extend the work done after 2005 even further. Of that, up to $10 million would be used for debris removal, $2 million to $5 million is needed for repairs to 2005's installations and up to $15 million would be used for additional riverbank protection.
"It will mostly take place in areas where we didn't do work last time," Smart said of the new protective measures. "Those will be permanent installations that will continue to offer protection for the county for many years."
Smart said $1 million has already been approved to immediate repairs and clean up.
Washington County officials have yet to complete an assessment of the total damages across the county. County Emergency Services Director Pete Kuhlmann said that work will begin next week.
"We decided to let everyone take Christmas off," he said.
------
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
