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FRUITLAND — Strawberry River Road west of Camelot Resort in Fruitland will remain closed for at least one year after a Sunday flash flood damaged an area already burned by the massive Dollar Ridge Fire in Duchesne and Wasatch counties.
Duchesne County Sheriff David Boren also urged residents from Timber Canyon east to the Camelot/Strawberry Pinnacles area to vacate their property.
“If you stay in this area, you do so at your own risk,” Boren said in an emailed statement from the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office. “Any additional rain in this area carries the real potential for loss of life."
Search and rescue personnel will not aid those in the area during future flooding if the risk to first responders is deemed too great, the sheriff added.
Sunday's storm dropped 1.5 inches of rain on part of the Dollar Ridge Fire burn scar in just over an hour, National Weather Service hydrologist Brian McInerney said in the statement.
The heavy rain caused the Strawberry River to jump its banks, forcing officials to close Strawberry River Road and save about 50 people who were stranded by the fast-moving flood water.
The Duchesne County Road Department crew continue to assess damage to the road since then.
The crew determined that 30 drainages on the north and south side of Strawberry River contributed to the flooding while five drainages on the south side of the river contributed enough water and debris to change the course of the Strawberry River, according to the sheriff's office.
"There is debris 12-feet deep in some places, including one spot about 4 miles west of Timber Canyon,” the road department's director Ben Henderson said in the statement.
50 stranded people saved after heavy rains cause flooding, road closures near Dollar Ridge Fire burn scar
Heavy rains on Sunday caused the Strawberry River to jump its banks, forcing officials to close a nearby road and save about 50 people who were stranded by the fast-moving flood water.Those living along the Strawberry River from Strawberry Reservoir in Wasatch County to Starvation Reservoir in Duchesne County should also be aware that rain might produce high runoff and debris flow because of the burn scar, Henderson said.
The weather service plans to install a weather monitoring station near the burn scar in late August to help provide an early warning should more storms move through the area, McInerney added.
"Officials in Duchesne and Wasatch counties will meet Tuesday to arrange a time when people with property west of Camelot can receive an escort to their property to retrieve their belongings. Information about the escorted trip will be posted following that meeting," the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office statement said.
County officials will also meet with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tuesday to discuss repairs, and Henderson said he has already filed permits with the Corps to begin the work.
