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Courtney Orton and Mary Richards reportingIt's a wet and messy day for some Tooele residents. As much as 5 feet of water poured into the basements of their homes early this morning.
The rain came down in Tooele, and the water rushed into basements of homes in an area known as The Maples. There was so much water that basement windows shattered, allowing water to rush into at least five basements. Some residents say they were powerless to do anything but sit back and watch.
"I could hear the water running before I got downstairs. I could smell the moisture. I couldn't believe what I saw," said Glenna Butler, whose basement was flooded. "We watched it all coming in. It was like a waterfall."
Butler just moved into her condo and had boxes stacked in the basement. She's most worried about the things that she can't replace. "I had, like, four or five boxes full of years and years and years of genealogy that an aunt had done, all written out and everything. It's gone," she said.
Some basements had several feet of water; others had a foot or two that soaked boxes of pictures, movies, genealogy and even appliances like a refrigerator and a TV.
The water came from a bowling alley parking lot and a field across the street. Giant puddles of water made the parking lot look more like a pond this morning.
Tooele City officials say the storm drain couldn't handle all of the rain they got in a short amount of time. "The storm drain was handling just exactly what was designed to. I think it was an unusual amount of water, and unfortunately, we've had that a couple of times over the past few years," said Mayor Patrick Dunlavy.
Russ Shostak, whose basement was also flooded, said, "First time wouldn't be bad, but this is the second time. Something should have been done the first time."
City leaders met this morning to discuss what needs to happen to prevent something like this from happening again.
Residents are obviously frustrated. They're happy it's stopped raining and hope the city can fix the problem so it doesn't cause damage like this again.
E-mail: corton@ksl.com
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
