First responders in Ogden ask for help as floods create new waterways
By Mike Anderson
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OGDEN (KSL) — First responders in Ogden asked for the public to help to recognize issues that could turn into flooding.
With such a huge snowpack, they’re seeing waterways form in places where they haven’t seen them before.
A lot of the focus was on waterways like the Weber River which overflowed the banks at Fort Buenaventura Park Thursday. Now those new waterways are a growing concern.
“We went from snow-plowing heavy snow — lots of hours of snow-plowing — to now flood monitoring, making berms just to control the weather,” public service operations manager Vincent Ramos said.
They shored up the Weber River all day Thursday to contain some of the water that is filling up the low-lying areas. At the same time, they’re preparing for new creeks and streams that are forming as the runoff comes off the mountain.
“We could hear this noise. We came out and there was water running down both gutters,” resident Wilford Hale said. “It just got bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Hale was at home Tuesday as water showed up outside his home near the Douglas Street Trailhead. He called 911.
“Fire truck came up and said, ‘Well it doesn’t look too bad,’ and they left, went back down,” Hale said.
After more neighbors called, Hale said they came right back and dozens of his neighbors showed up to remove debris and lay down sandbags.
“I just can’t believe how neat the people are in this town,” Hale said. “Everybody was up here with shovels, helping to stop it.”
That response Tuesday prompted public works, Ogden fire, and police to work on better coordinating similar situations. They realized this flood season is already shaping up to be very different from past ones.
“We are asking residents if you see new flow patterns develop, please let us know so we can go up there and take a look at the issues and see if there’s something we do to help protect the property,” Ogden emergency manager Kenny Miller said.
The hope is that they can get on top of those new waterways before it becomes an emergency.
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