Post-storm overview, cleanup underway

Written by Holly Coombs
August 27, 2014

SOUTHERN UTAH – Many in Washington County awoke to mud smeared streets and rubble Wednesday after a torrential downpour, lit up by countless lightning bolts across the sky, plummeted on Utah’s Dixie Tuesday night.

SEE PHOTO GALLERY HERE:  News LIVE: Heavy rains cause flooding, structure failures, multiple car accidents; UPDATED 11 PM, STGnews Photo Gallery

Reporting in across the area, although there is considerable mud and debris that can stand a good cleanup, no serious disasters are reported.

St. George

An Emergency Operations Center, or EOC, was formed around 9 p.m. at the city offices, said Marc Mortensen, assistant to the city manager. City officials and representatives from each city department were on hand in order to coordinate responses to Tuesday night’s downpour.

Around 10 streets throughout the city were seriously impacted by the rains, some of which were shut down due to the volume of water covering them. On some of those streets drainage infrastructure was overwhelmed and flooded water mixed with mud and debris.

During the storm a retaining wall behind a business on St. George Boulevard collapsed and rocks from the Red Hill fell onto 200 East by the city offices.

No serious damage was done to public infrastructure, Mortensen said, though he noted that several of homes and businesses reported localized flooding on their respective properties.

An inch of rain is estimated to have hit St. George in an hour, he said.

Clean up efforts are likely to continue for at least a week as crews work to clear the streets, sidewalks and city trails of mud and debris.

City officials are asking residents to exercise caution while walking through places that haven’t been cleared yet, as loose gravel and other debris may be present.

Washington 

While flooding, debris and other accidents were reported in the City of St. George after the  Tuesday night rainstorm, the aftermath in Washington City was minimal.

A few city streets needed cleanup, but trenches and sandbags were still in place from the previous storm last week, Washington City Fire Chief Brent Hafen said. Property owners, who suffered from the last storm, still had their sandbags in place and no extensive damage was reported.

“We were more prepared this time around,” Hafen said. “There was nothing major only a few front yards flooded.”

LaVerkin and Hurricane

With the weight of the  damage at the southern end of Washington County, no official reports were given regarding damage or disasters in the LaVerkin and Hurricane areas, but lightning shows were present from the storm as shown in videocast below.


 Videocast by T.S. Romney

Cedar City

The storm brought a lighter rainstorm to Iron County with no damage, accidents or flooding reported to Cedar City officials or Cedar City Police Department.

News Reporters Mori Kessler, Devan Chavez and  T.S. Romney and  Editor-in-Chief Joyce Kuzmanic contributed to this report.

Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery. 

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Copyright St. George News, StGeorgeUtah.com Inc., 2014, all rights reserved

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Holly is a 2013 graduate from Southern Utah University, where she received her bachelor's degree in communication with an emphasis in journalism and broadcasting. She thrives off meeting and associating with people from any background and culture and learning their stories. Holly is a country girl and enjoys the outdoors, but most of all she loves spending time with friends and family.

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9 Comments

  • FEMA August 27, 2014 at 7:05 pm

    Now what all the Federal Government haters demand tons of FEMA money

  • chickweed August 27, 2014 at 7:08 pm

    Good coverage and photos, here. But I can’t help the following: I believe the word you were looking for in your first graph is “plummeled” not “plummeted.” You guys must hire the same proofreaders used by the other print “news” outlet in town.

    • killjoy August 27, 2014 at 10:34 pm

      Chickweed, you misspelled “pummeled” also.

    • gramar-ma August 28, 2014 at 1:13 am

      Plummeled or pummeled? You’re not one of those who say and write “prolly” instead of probably, are you?

      • gramar-ma August 28, 2014 at 1:15 am

        Oh, and it’s “paragraph” not “graph”. You’re writing deary, not doing geometry or X Y coordinates.

  • Tom August 27, 2014 at 8:52 pm

    CHICKWEED: I believe the word you were looking for was “pummeled” not “plummeled”.

  • laerdes August 27, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    huh? ‘Plummeled’ isn’t a word. Did you mean ‘pummeled’? Because if you do, I agree. 🙂

  • killjoy August 28, 2014 at 10:21 am

    Joyce, can you please fix the “plummeted” grammatical error?

    • Avatar photo Joyce Kuzmanic August 28, 2014 at 11:37 am

      Well, killjoy – and gramar-ma too, here’s my analysis:
      A downpour plummeting on Dixie does not to my eye appear to be in error. Plummet is a verb which means to fall or drop straight down at high speed. I admit I may not see things the way all eyes see them, but I honestly think that was a fairly accurate description of the rainfall Tuesday night.
      Plummel, on the other hand, is not a word with which I’m familiar – and doesn’t seem to be one familiar to my dictionaries either. I confess I did not check with Urban Dictionary, so perhaps I’m uninformed.
      Pummel may be what gramar-ma was reaching for. And I suppose it might be another option; it means to strike repeatedly. Problem there, to my thinking, is: Pummel is typically used of striking and striking again with fists. And while the hail that fell Tuesday was close to the size of some very tiny fists (a squirrel’s perhaps), I think that would be a stretch.
      I have to tell you with good humor that I am well aware I may have egg on my face shortly as can happen when I dare to defend a word or sentence. And that’s OK, if you can explain to me how to see this some other way. We trade in words and don’t presume to have a corner on that market. So please, do tell. I’ll gladly consider it.
      Enjoyed the challenge,
      ST. GEORGE NEWS | STGnews.com
      Joyce Kuzmanic
      Editor in Chief

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