Millcreek street floods after city puts in new storm drains

MILLCREEK, Utah — Wednesday afternoon’s short downpour flooded some Millcreek homes, and residents said they are sick of the constant flooding and want the city to fix the drains — or foot the bill for damage they deal with.

Just a couple of miles west of Skyline High School, neighbors on Hillside Lane say 3900 South was restored a while ago, and the city came in to reconstruct storm drains.

Still, they say every time a big storm comes through, they end up footing a huge bill, and they are sick of it.

“It looked like a lake,” one resident said. “It’s never been this bad or come up this close.”

Shirley Porath, 94 has lived in her house since 1955.

“Water came clear up into my garage into both bedrooms and sewing room downstairs.”

Whoah at the water! 😱 https://t.co/mS5uhqKfif

— Karah Brackin (@KB_ON_TV) September 15, 2022

She’s seen a lot of heavy rainstorms but the damage from Wednesday’s storm was devastating, even with neighbors jumping in to help.

“It’s going to be a terrible expense,” Porath said. “I have to sign for $1,200 today.”

Just down the street, Riley Jensen felt the anxiety.

“We’ve been flooded three times,” Jensen said. “It happens all the time when a storm hits. To be honest, Millcreek came in and did something at one time, but you can see it’s not the solution.”

His home wasn’t flooded in this storm, but Amy Brindley’s was — again.

“Twice a year for the last four years. I teach up at Skyline — I’ve gotta go home, this is the kind of rain that floods my basement.

Several Skyline High School students sent home early after flooding

Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestri says this problem isn’t the city’s fault — it was just too much rain, too fast and if Millcreek paid for upgrades for major storms, it would be a big burden on taxpayers.

Silvestri said the infrastructure is meant to handle 10- or 15-year rain events.

“This is just like a 50-year rain event and when we designed the structure, it’s not designed to handle that much rain,” he said. “If we were to design for that, it would cost our taxpayers a lot more money.”

Joanna Trout says the fixes are a bust, even after the new design. And she worries about her elderly neighbor every time a storm moves in.

“The drainage system does not work,” she said.

As for Porath, she definitely thinks the city should step up.

“I’m just hoping and praying the county will take responsibility for it not draining properly.”

The following day, the city discovered that the storm drain was damaged and covered with a steel plate preventing the water from entering the pipe. They don’t know who did the damage, but there is an open excavation and construction site next to the damaged drain. They are following up on this.