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Jed Boal reporting Many of you have already found out just how soggy the soil is along the Wasatch Front. From Draper to Farr West, people are bailing to stay above water.
A massive amount of water is on the move towards the Great Salt Lake. Not all of it is above ground. The water table is high in places, and it's flooding basements.
Last week storm water came on like a tidal wave in Farr West, when the skies opened up and unleashed a downpour.
Since then, water from that same storm has slowly saturated soil...and swamped basements.
Zanette Halliday/Flooded Homeowner: “We have water coming in faster than we can take it out even with the sump pump and carpet cleaners"
Zanette Halliday and her neighbors in Layton get little sympathy from the city Flooding is the homeowners' problem.
Zanette Halliday/Flooded Homeowner: “I'm not sure where else to go for help. If it's like this not, what's it going to be like in May when it gets really warm?"
Halliday's also worried about contaminants leaching from the Superfund site at Hill Air Force Base not far away.
She called them to come test the water.
Next door, Fabian Lobato had the same problem, so he punched a hole in the concrete floor to relieve the pressure of the rising water and to set up a sump pump to get the water out.
Fabian Lobato/Flooded Homeowner: Hopefully, that little pump in the bottom of that bucket keeps me from having more problems, but nobody can guarantee that."
Sump pumps are jumping out the door at Durk's Plumping Supplies and home improvement stores.
The phone started ringing a week ago.
Eric Schoenfeld/Durk's Plumbing Supplies: Every phone call we got...do you have a sump pump...do you have a sump pump...do you have a sump pump?"
More than 80 sold...people even prepaid and put their names on a waiting list.
Eric Schoenfeld/Durk's Plumbing Supplies: We'll keep ordering. I think the big surge of people realized it's going to start melting so we better get pumps in...and save our house."
This high water table isn't only affecting homes in low lands. The homes in Layton were well above any typical flood zones.
