UTAH'S FLOOD WATCH
North Ogden neighbors fight back waters from flooding canals
Apr 12, 2023, 6:31 PM | Updated: Apr 17, 2023, 11:43 am
NORTH OGDEN, Utah — People are trying to manage the flow of water and keep it away from homes in North Ogden.
There are sandbags all up and down 1700 North, the street sounds like a river. People are asking the city to make it a priority to get better drainage systems out here.
Keli Dalton grew up in the area, and is one of many locals astounded at what they’re seeing; in the help and the water.
“It’s insane,” Dalton said. “I just can’t believe how many people have come out, and they had a night-watch last night… every hour, rotating, making sure the homes weren’t flooding. Pretty amazing.”
Volunteers have given their time and service to protect their neighbors homes from the rushing water.
“It’s unbelievable. This is a massive amount of water,” Pat Burns, one of the volunteers said. “This is North Ogden. This is what everybody does here, so it’s a great community.”
Burns was building walls, pushing back the waters for homeowners like Tim Jones.
“I’m standing in my ditch. This ditch should be at least two and a half, three feet deep,” Jones said. He said if it weren’t for the volunteers, his home would have flooded. “We knew it was going to be bad, but didn’t think it was going to be this bad.’
Chad Jensen is one of the locals who said they asked the city to dredge this ditch ahead of the runoff.
“This isn’t new,” Jensen said. “There’s actually wate, power, and gas lines that run under that ditch, and so changing the depth of that ditch isn’t necessarily as simple as just digging into it.”
Jon Call, North Ogden’s Administrator and Attorney said its unsafe. Thats why others say it’s time to get a long-term solution, like a pipe to manage the runoff.
Many of the folks here point ou thtat city workers have been here helping and htey are grateful. They’d just like to see a solution become a higher priority.
Call said a pipe is in the long-term plans, but in this case it wouldn’t have helped since so much debris actually plugged up a pipe further upstream.
