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Tremonton residents fight flood, mayor offers apology

Posted at 7:49 PM, Feb 20, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-20 21:50:28-05

TREMONTON -Battling to keep three feet of standing rain and water out of their homes, residents confronted the Mayor about solutions to fix the problem.

Residents said this was the second time in three years that their street had been flooded.

"When we asked him yesterday what he was going to do, he said, 'I don't know what to tell you, you shouldn't have built your house here,'" said Nate Robison, who lives in the neighborhood.

The Mayor of Tremonton admitted he wished he could take the comment back.

"I apologize, I shouldn't have said that," Mayor Roger Fridal confirmed.

Robison and many of his neighbors called out from work Monday to continue pumping the water off their street and away from their home.

"I'm exhausted. I probably got an hour's worth of sleep last night," Robison said.

An inch of rain that fell late Saturday night combined with rising temperatures that melted snow all resulted in standing water in the area and caused electrical issues Sunday night.

“There’s a big drain that goes into a smaller pipe, and the flow was not there," Mayor Friday said. "The water couldn’t go anywhere.”

Fridal said when it comes to fixing the drain size to accommodate all the standing water, there are two problems‬. One problem, he contends, is that the drain sits off of City property, something that UDOT has to fix. The other problem is that the neighborhood in Tremonton sits at a low elevation, so, when water collects, it pushes downhill.

Fridal says that it's possible to fix the problem within six months.

“This should have been dealt with the first time it flooded,” Robison fired back.‬