Late July storms hit Cedar City, Iron County, cause flooding, road blockages, downed trees

Children ride bikes in the flooded streets in the Lamplight subdivision of Cedar City, Utah, July 31, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Jeremy Nelson, St. George News / Cedar City News

CEDAR CITY — Monsoon thunderstorms pelted Cedar City and other areas of Iron County on Sunday afternoon, causing flooding in several locations.

Image from a drone shows aftermath of a mudslide on SR-143 in Parowan Canyon, Utah on July 28, 2022 | Photo by Mike Saemisch, St. George News / Cedar City News

It marked the second day in a row and the third time in four days that cloudbursts dumped significant amounts of rain on the area.

According to the National Weather Service, the measuring station at Cedar City Regional Airport received 0.22 inches of rain on Thursday, 0.43 inches on Saturday and another 0.29 inches on Sunday, for a total of 0.94 inches over the last four days of July. That’s nearly two-thirds of the 1.47 inches of rainfall that fell during the entire month.

Of course, as is typical for such localized storms, the amount of water that fell on a given area varied widely, with some places hit hard and others hardly getting wet at all.

Sunday’s storm washed mud and rocks onto state Route 14 near the mouth of Cedar Canyon, stopping motorists in their tracks. Some drivers got out of their cars to help move boulders off the road, KSL-TV reported. The road has since been cleared.

A similar situation had occurred three days earlier, when Thursday’s storm sent large swaths of mud and debris onto sections of state Route 143 in Parowan Canyon, between Parowan and Brian Head. Crews were able to get the road open again approximately four hours later, just as dusk fell.

Other areas reporting flooded streets, canals, ditches and drainages over the weekend included Westview Drive, Equestrian Point, the Lamplight area near Iron Springs Elementary, Fiddler’s Canyon and surrounding areas near Canyon View High and Canyon View Middle schools, along with several locations in and around Enoch, including the Peak View subdivision. Several residents reported large trees being toppled over in the wind and rain. At least one basement and a few yards were reportedly flooded in the Equestrian Point area.

Flooded streets in the Lamplight subdivision of Cedar City, Utah, July 30, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Jeremy Nelson, St. George News / Cedar City News

As previously reported in St. George News / Cedar City News, officials in both Cedar City and Iron County have been proactively working to prepare for this year’s monsoon season, and are encouraging area residents to be mindful their preparation for possible floods and other emergencies.

Iron County Commissioner Marilyn Wood said the mitigation efforts do seem to be helping thus far.

“All the ditches were OK where the work had been done for mitigation,” she said. “None of them ran over, but there was some flooding due to a lot of rain coming down hard in those areas.”

Free sandbags, which have already been filled with sand and are stored in shipping containers, may be picked up by Iron County residents at the county road yard on Kitty Hawk Drive in Cedar City.

“They can take as many as they need,” said Iron County emergency manager George Colson, who added that county workers or volunteers may be available to help those needing assistance loading or unloading sandbags, depending on what time they come.

“But they really need to bring their own muscle,” he suggested.

As of Monday evening, the current week’s weather forecast for the Cedar City area predicts a 20-40% chance of thundershowers almost every day this week and into the first part of next week.

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