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MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE, Weber County — Multiple levee breaches along the Weber River in western Weber County ramped up flood prevention efforts Tuesday in several communities, where more than a dozen homes are at risk at being swamped with water and backyards are sporting canoes.
Several farm fields were flooded from what has turned the main breach into a 100-foot wide gap, where "an awful lot of water is coming unimpeded," said Weber County Commissioner Kerry Gibson, who is also a dairy farmer in Plain City.
Gibson was still on the scene of the flooding late Tuesday night, describing homes that were surrounded with a lake of water.
"They look like castles with a moat built around them," Gibson said.
Sandbagging efforts were proving successful, however, in keeping the water at bay and from damaging the homes.
"It's been a valiant effort," he said. "The sandbags are in place and doing their job."
The effort has been assisted by the dozens and dozens of people spontaneously showing up to help, offering the use of trucks, trailers, backhoes and other heavy equipment to stem the tide.
While multiple outbuildings such as sheds and corrals have suffered significant damage, Gibson said no homes had been severely compromised by the flood.
His own neighboring dairy farm has acreage that is underwater, but Gibson said his attention is focused on the fate of residential structures.
Gibson said the breach was first detected sometime early Tuesday afternoon. It followed sandbagging efforts through the morning and Monday night, said Weber County Emergency Services Director Lance Peterson.
Many of the impacted areas are off west 21st Street past 1900 West, where the Weber River hit flood stage and crested its banks Monday night.
By Tuesday, its levels had receded and emergency officials thought the worst of the danger was over. Gibson said that the levee did not hold, however, and the water began to spill. Soon, other, smaller breaches began to follow.
"It's almost like playing Wack-A-Mole," with one problem being pounded down just as another popped up, Gibson said.
"We're trying to save what we can."
Crews were staging at 4700 West and 950 North to stop the water's flow, Gibson said, but it has been a daunting task.
"It's been huge effort," he said.
Water managers at the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District — who control reservoir flows into the Weber and Ogden rivers — have been reducing water releases from Pineview and Echo over the last several days.
"They are to be commended. If they had not done that, it would have been 10 times worse," Peterson said.
Still, it was not enough.
Significant rainfall was the enemy Monday, bringing an estimated 10 inches of "new water" out of the snowmelt and into the Weber River, causing it to spill from its banks.
"It was a huge amount of water," Peterson said. "If it had just been 1 or 2 inches of rainfall, we could have handled that."
Gibson said the county may soon turn to other entities — for financial help and other assistance.
"There are significant infrastructure challenges we have had to deal with," he said. "We are going to have to have some help; we don't know where it is going to come from."
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Story written by Amy Joi O'Donoghue with contributions from Sarah Dallof.
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