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John Hollenhorst reporting A series of fast-moving thunderstorms rumbled across northern Utah Sunday, and here and there they shook things up.
The worst problems we saw were in the Ogden area. But that wasn't the only place. Damage was scattered, and localized to small areas. But for some people here and there, it was a personal disaster.
We all have been begging for relief from the heat and drought, and then a little bit of relief comes and unfortunately it's all focused in little intense pockets of heavy rain.
Around the Ogden area streets filled up with water as a half inch of rain fell in just a few minutes.
Parking lots became playgrounds for adventure-loving kids.
It was an agonizing adventure for Brandi Wilding. Her home was surrounded by a giant puddle several feet deep.
The water cascaded down her basement stairs. It gurgled through windows, drowning her family possessions in water at least three feet deep.
"There's a lot of stuff underwater here that's worth a lot to me," she says.
At the peak of flooding, Brandi and a friend tried to unclog a storm drain in the yard. It turned out to be a very bad day for both of them. She was almost sucked under.
"You know, I went down to my chest, and he dove in, come running in after me to help me. (He) thought I was hurt. He broke his foot. Right when he pulled me up, our dog ran out in the middle of the street and got hit by a car."
Runoff from the storm washed debris onto a canyon road called the North Ogden Divide.
It's expected to be closed all day Monday for cleanup.
Heavy gusts of wind brought down trees and limbs, and even uprooted a huge trunk about 7 feet in diameter. It demolished a metal shed and nearly buried two vehicles.
Nearby, another tree fell against a house full of screaming kids and their great grandmother.
Hortensia Richardson says, "It was scary. All I can say. It was so scary. We just started to get together and hugging each other in the house, that's all."
It was a similar story in Magna where a large branch fell on a home. There was localized street flooding. And in another home, a mess.
It was flooded a couple of inches deep, so they began mopping it up with towels and sleeping bags.
"We had probably that much water in our hallway. Came up to these guys, got a pump. When I got back my wife told me it had started flooding the bedroom. It just started coming down like it is now. Started flooding everything out," says homeowner Justin Bickham.
Apart from that man in Ogden who had a pretty painful foot injury, we don't know of anybody getting seriously hurt. And there's no way to estimate the property damage in dollars.
But, obviously, for a few people, this was a very unfortunate way to get relief from the drought.
