Warmer temperatures lead to greater flooding concerns

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MURRAY — With summer finally heating up, the waters in creeks and rivers across the Wasatch Front are expected to peak well above flood stage over the next couple of days.

Salt Lake County Public Works has been expecting this to happen for several weeks now, it just didn't think it would happen this late. This week, it is taking that extra time to make sure everything's in place and ready to go if the waters get out of control.

The National Weather Service issued a flood watch just before 4 a.m. Wednesday. It reaches from northern Utah to the Manti area and will remain in effect until Saturday afternoon.

Little Cottonwood Creek sits right in Chad Taylor's back yard. He says over the weekend, waters pushed into the grass toward his house.

"We're kind of right up next to it, so looks like we've got 6 or 7 feet. If it rises above that, we'll be out here sandbagging again," he said.

Homeowners aren't the only ones bracing for what's to come. Salt Lake County workers prepared throughout the day, staging equipment so it's ready to go while helping homeowners pick up sandbags. Several thousand of them were packed overnight.

County Public Works Director Scott Baird said, "We really have a head-start on our sandbags. We have our equipment in place, we have the Unified Fire Authority and the Unified Police Department ready to help us. We also have sandbag staging areas where we can do a huge volunteer effort in a very short time."

Baird believes the necessary preparations have been made. And if the worst comes, they'll be ready. Though it's hard to say for sure, he expects this week will see some of the worst conditions of the year, as predicted.

"Those weather forecasts and those projections are being updated constantly, so they can change. But I expect that this week will be the biggest surge," he said.

Many homeowners have been preparing for the past two months, saying there isn't much else they can do.

"I think we'll do OK as long as we can stay on top of it," Taylor said.

Several other counties are also preparing. Flooding along the Logan River cut U.S. 89 to one lane in the Temple Forks area as crews repaired highway damage in Logan Canyon.

KSL meteorologist Grant Weyman said it looks like Thursday will be the first 90 of the year and the hottest day of the year so far along the Wasatch Front. He said it will be just about as hot through the weekend.

In Logan, it’s expected to reach 91 degrees on Thursday, with temperatures dropping back into the low 80s for the weekend.

Written by Mike Anderson with contributions from Shara Park .