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EAGLE MOUNTAIN – Residents of the Spring Run neighborhood in Eagle Mountain worked into the early morning hours Thursday to place sandbags and pump floodwater away from homes.
"We had water running down our driveway really bad — almost like a river," Tyler Chorn said. "Our retaining wall actually fell down in spots from the water running down."
The water inundated the neighborhood during a heavy rainstorm Wednesday evening. The runoff flowed down a hill above the neighborhood and overwhelmed a ditch behind the homes on Wheat Field Lane.
"It was crazy," Chorn said. "There was a lot of water. It happened really fast."
In addition to knocking over retaining walls, the rushing water-covered backyards filled in-ground trampolines and started flowing into basements in the newer neighborhood that backs up to Camp Williams.
"It was about up to where the doorknob is," Chorn said of the water filling up his home's exterior basement stairwell.
A spokesperson for Eagle Mountain said the floodwaters impacted the properties of five homes and that two of those homes had flooded basements.
"We handed out about 600 sandbags last night," Tyler Maffitt, the city's communications manager, said.
Maffitt said city crews responded to the neighborhood during the flooding and were able to distribute and place the sandbags with the help of about 50 neighbors.
City crews also used heavy equipment to dig a second ditch alongside the existing one in an effort to direct the water away from homes.
Maffitt said that by adding the second ditch, it should be able to handle future rainstorms and that the city doesn't expect further issues. Even so, the city is ready to dig more ditches if needed.
"Even if that ditch were to overfill, we would just keep going until it wasn't a problem and it wasn't potentially causing hazards to homes," Maffitt said.
Chorn said the neighborhood stayed out until 1:30 a.m., or later, working to keep the floodwaters out of backyards and basements.
"The community being willing to chip in and help, that's been the biggest inspiring thing for me that we have neighbors that care," Chorn said. "Even if they weren't affected, they're still willing to come out and help."
