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WEST VALLEY CITY -- Several communities around the Wasatch Front woke up to flooding early Sunday morning.
River Lane in the Silo Farms Mobile Home Park, 1200 West 3700 South, lived up to its name, as residents discovered standing water surrounding many of the nearby homes.
"We looked like rice paddies," said resident Jean Ellzey. "Our yards looked like rice paddies."
A few homes in that West Valley community run along the Jordan River, which is increasingly on the verge of flooding.
"It's pretty high," said resident Tammy O'Flynn. "You can actually hear it if you get back there; you can hear it running."
At nearby James Madison Oxbow Park, the Jordan River reached its banks and a walking path under the bridge was flooded.
I didn't go to my church meetings this morning because I wasn't going to put on stockings and shoes and wade out to my car to get anywhere.
–Jean Ellzey
Additionally, a portion of the street on 3300 South and 1300 West looked like a pond after rain and debris clogged drainage pipes there.
Silo Farms had a similar problem. The rainwater, which typically goes into the gutter and spills into the river, had nowhere to go.
"It was clear up halfway, up to our wheels there on our cars," O'Flynn said.
Cleanup began early Sunday morning as three machines started pumping more than two thousand gallons of water a minute. But with so much water, the process took the community nearly all day to drain the area.
"I didn't go to my church meetings this morning because I wasn't going to put on stockings and shoes and wade out to my car to get anywhere," Ellzey said.
Fortunately for residents, their homes are elevated so that the water didn't creep inside.
But for a business in the area of 8000 S. Highland Dr. in Cottonwood Heights, the owner wasn't so lucky.
The Journey Healing Center, a recovery center for substance abuse addicts, spent the morning drying out after water rushed down Highland Drive Saturday night, sending up to six inches of water into the basement.
"We've had to move all the furnishings out trying to get the carpets as dry as we can," said Michelle Engstrand.
Engstrand heard it was a water main break. But Cottonwood Heights Police said that the flooding was a result of the construction in the area or too much rain, causing a storm drain to malfunction.
Officers sandbagged the street to divert the water from homes and into a nearby creek.
E-mail: syi@ksl.com
