Storm brings wind and water to Wasatch Front

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Sunday's storm packed a pretty good punch. It's dropped a decent amount of rain, caused some power outages and brought some moisture to hillsides that burned last week.

The storm caused power outages to about 27,000 customers statewide. Utah Power says in some areas power poles were burned and are unlikely to be fixed before Monday.

Draper residents spent much of the day watching the skies in anticipation of Sunday's big storm. There were concerns that rain could cause mudslides in the area after wildfire tore through most of the vegetation above their homes last week. In fact, several canyons empty into the neighborhood there.

Draper homeowner Frank Maylett said, "If the rain starts to collect in the canyon, and starts running down the sidewalls, and gets a head of steam, it could bring a lot of debris down the canyon."

Shanna Maylett, another homeowner there, said, "I'd prefer it weren't here. It's looking kind of scary and gray. I wish it would pass our house anyway."

At the Maylett home, they installed a storm alert and, with help from neighbors, filled 1,000 sandbags. They also have 72-hour kits ready and are ready to move if the mountain moves. "The hydrologist said it was the equivalent to 1,000 cement trucks dumping their load simultaneously. And there's just no way to control that. So at that point we run," Maylett said.

The city is prepared to evacuate roughly 100 homes. Draper City manager Lane Long, said, "Well, we're watching it very close. If we get any indication that water is moving down the canyons or mud is starting to move, we'll do a mandatory evacuation at that point. Things are all in place to do that, but we're not issuing that at this point."

The latest we've heard from Draper is that they're still watching those hillsides closely. They had some rain Sunday, but so far it has not bee enough to move any mud. Of course, that could change overnight.

Draper residents can reach the Draper Emergency Operations Center by calling 801-576-5600 if they have any questions.

E-mail: jdaley@ksl.com