Homeowners left with mystery and big bill after Provo flood

PROVO — A couple is trying to pick up the pieces after several feet of water, mud and debris poured into their home. It happened last Wednesday evening during a heavy rainstorm in Provo that also caused a mudslide near the Buckley Draw Fire burn scar, which buried a car and damaged a church. Travisse and Stephanie Hansen shared video with KSL TV of what looked like a river rushing into the basement of the home they own but currently rent out. While their neighbors reported dealing with just a few inches of water that night, the Hansens are trying to figure out why such a severe flood happened — and how to pay for it. “Where did this come from? Why did this happen,” said Stephanie Hansen. “Why did our basement fill with four feet of water and mud?”

‘I just cried’

When the rain came down Wednesday evening, the Hansens got a text from their renters who were living at the Provo house near 1300 South 1500 East informing them that some water was getting inside. Soon, they received a video showing just how bad it was. “When I got down here, I just cried,” Stephanie Hansen said.The couple soon had friends, neighbors and strangers showing up to help them shovel out mud and debris, which they appreciated. As they clean up, though, they’re puzzled why all that water rushed specifically to their house. “Something happened to cause this,” Travisse Hansen said. “We’re trying to figure out if it was a blocked duct or something somewhere or a drain pipe or just how this exactly happened.” Gordon Haight, Provo public works director, told KSL TV the city just learned what happened at the Hansen home and is investigating. Haight said the city also received a report of another home damaged during the same storm. “There may have been neighbors upstream that did some landscaping or changed some things,” Haight said. “We just don't know, so we're going to go up and take a look and see what we can find out and where that water may have come from.”

A big bill

How the flood happened is not all the Hansens are trying to figure out. “The main problem is, it's not covered by insurance,” said Travisse Hansen. That's because the water came from outside — not inside — the home. All this could cost the Hansens tens of thousands of dollars or more. “It’s just Trav and I to figure out how to pay for this,” said Stephanie Hansen. “We don't know why. We don't know why this happened to our house.”The Hansens said they'll try filing a claim with Provo city to see where that goes. They also hope for answers from whatever the city uncovers about the problem.

Cleanup after mudslide

Meanwhile, just to the south, cleanup continued Tuesday at the meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Slate Canyon Drive that was damaged during the mudslide last week from the Buckley Draw Fire burn scar. Haight said the mudslide was a “major debris flow” that overwhelmed the concrete barriers the city had set up. There was a channel in the area already installed to handle debris, which Haight said crews extended before last week's mudslide, but it still filled up “because of the volume.” Haight said city crews will now clean it out.“We know there's rain throughout the month of September, and so we just want to have everything cleaned back out — a new debris basin filled up, cleaned up back there — so we're ready,” Haight said. “Hopefully we don't get an event this large again.” But if there is another mudslide that large, Haight said, there is a plan to prepare for it. He said the developer of a new subdivision above the church will pay to further extend the debris channel and put in additional basins. That, Haight said, is designed to protect the new homes and divert any future flow around the church. Haight noted no homes were damaged because of the mudslide from the fire burn scar. “That was our number one priority,” Haight said, “just to make sure the homes were protected.”

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