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MURRAY — Laura Voorhees watched from her porch as family, friends, neighbors and even strangers safeguarded her home by placing sandbags along Little Cottonwood Creek.
"I think it's pretty special that people are willing to give of their time ... to assist those in need," the elderly woman said. "I'm so grateful to them all."
Voorhees has seen the creek spill its banks several times during the nearly 50 years she's lived at the home. Some years, water has reached her home, the elderly woman said.
It's a great show of volunteerism for our city. You can't ask for anything better than what we have here....It's neighbors helping neighbors.
–Phil Roberts
Murray and Salt Lake County officials say the potential for that to happen again in the coming weeks is high. Snowpack in the mountains east of Murray is well above normal, and soils already are saturated by the wet spring.
Nearly 200 volunteers gathered Saturday morning at Murray Park to fill sandbags, load them into trucks and then unload them at designated trouble spots throughout the city.
Volunteers brought their own shovels, used their own trucks and gave roughly four hours of their time in hopes of keeping their neighbors' homes safe from flood waters — if and when they come.
"It's a great show of volunteerism for our city," said Phil Roberts, Murray fire marshal. "You can't ask for anything better than what we have here....It's neighbors helping neighbors."
Roberts estimated that volunteers would fill between 6,000 and 7,000 sandbags Saturday.
Most of those sandbags were placed along in the area of 900 East, between Wheeler Historic Farm and Vine Street.
That's where Voorhees lives, and neighbors want to make sure the woman's home is protected.
"She's the nicest, sweetest lady," said Matt Van Duren, one of the volunteers who unloaded and stacked sandbags along the creek Saturday. "She can't do it on her own. She needs the help."
Email:jpage@ksl.com
