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GREEN RIVER, Emery County — It's a warm day on the swollen Green River, where a trio of men are surveying the above-ground damage caused by flood waters.
A tool shed, although ringed by sandbags, has nevertheless lost its fight to stay protected.
On the other side of the shore is a corral absent of livestock and full of water that rushed in after a levee gave way.
The only good thing is that we had enough warning we have been able to be pretty proactive early on.
–Greg Funk, Emery County sheriff
#funk_quote
Some of the threats posed by the over-full river are often beneath the surface — driftwood and other debris that clogs the propeller of a boat operated by the state Division of Parks and Recreation.
That debris — large logs, chunks of trees and Olive Russian branches — is being caught at the Main Street bridge that runs through town across state Route 19.
"Our biggest concern is that bridge," said Emery County Sheriff Greg Funk, pointing to mounds of debris that have washed up against the supports.
"Everybody is doing what they can," Funk said. "The only good thing is that we had enough warning we have been able to be pretty proactive early on."
Funk and his emergency services coordinator, Sheriff's Capt. Kyle Ekker, coordinated the placement of 2,000 sandbags along the Green River state golf course that abuts the river. There are 20,000 sandbags ready to fill.
A backhoe is on standby, and large angular rocks, Rip Rap, are piled next to a residence to divert the river flows.
The rest, they say, is in the hands of Mother Nature and how warm it gets and how quickly the days heat up in the weeks to come.
In the floods of 1983 and 1984, the river hit flows of 48,300 cubic feet per second. On Monday, it was flowing at 46,686 cubic feet per second.
Ekker and Funk say they can mitigate up to 50,000 cubic feet per second, and after that, it's just a matter of mopping up the damage.
The river tour is something the two do nearly every day, captained by Green River State Park Director Eugene Swalberg.
He's mindful of any potential damage to the state park's golf course and assuring that park campers stay safe as the water inches closer.
On this tour, they head north up the churning river to take a look at a decades old diversion dam that sends the river to a canal. The canal feeds the agriculture livelihoods of the area farmers.
Related:
FloodWatch: River Flow Tracker
Track the water levels of creeks and rivers near you with our Live 5 River Flow Tracker."If that goes, there goes the valley," Ekker said. "It supplies water to all the farmers and ranchers."
The water is pushing furiously against the structure on this sunny day, a continual force that has the men worried.
It is something they watch carefully, in addition to warning novice kayakers of the high flows this year that can turn deadly at a moment's notice.
Just that weekend, a woman was toppled out of her kayak. Despite hours of searching that stretched into the evening, she was nowhere to be found.
She later turned up alongside a road, waterlogged, but alive.
While the river is posing all sorts of problems for the tiny community — with the threat of more trouble to come — Funk says he is aware that they pale compared to the flooding problems in Weber and Morgan counties. Both have already declared disasters.
Still, he said, this is their little remote corner of the world, worth protecting.
"We're going to keep fighting this as long as we can."
Email:aodonoghue@ksl.com
