DRAPER, Utah — Homeowners across Draper are already dealing with the impacts of runoff as the historic snowpack begins to melt with rising temperatures.
It has been an emotional week for Jennifer.
The basement of her home was her mom’s apartment. That was until water from the ground seeped into her carpet, and flooded the area. On Easter Sunday, they saw a little bit of water coming through the floor and did their best to dry it.
By morning, snow melt filled her floors.
“The entire basement was completely soaked,” she said. “And we started to demolish immediately.”
So along with friends and family, she pulled out the flooring and drywall herself, because it was too expensive to do professionally. “We’re down to concrete, studs and 2x4s.” She said it used to be a place filled with memories.
“The rental equipment alone is going to bankrupt some of us. We have to have usually 15 to 20 fans going almost 24 hours a day, and dehumidifiers in each room. It’s just not sustainable at this point,” she said.
Jennifer has received estimates of over $10-20,000 dollars to redo the whole basement – walls, flooring, waterproofing, mold remediation – and bring it back to what it was before.
And she said her insurance won’t help. “Insurance is covering nothing. For almost all of us up here, the fine print says no groundwater, so financially, emotionally, we’re all physically exhausted, because most of us are trying to handle this on our own, along with our everyday lives.”
She said it’s not just her – her neighborhood is feeling the weight of the water.
“This community was built and it has some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, but it was not meant to withstand this snowpack. A lot of these houses don’t have drainage systems, don’t have sump pumps, they are not equipped to deal with this.”
Her neighbor's home has flooded three times this year – costing her $30,000 in floor damages and about $5,000 for fans and pumps.
Causing concerns for all of them. “I’m up about every 90 minutes to 2 hours just to make sure pumps are working, going, that there are no issues,” she said. “It’s pretty sleepless around here, you can see the lights on at night. People are checking their houses to make sure everything is okay.”
Jennifer also reached out to FEMA for assistance as well for help with damages. “And received an email stating that our area is not covered, so as of now, if you are flooded, it’s all on you.”
For her and her neighbors, the spring weather is far from over. “We’re all just watching our houses go underwater. We literally see it coming up from the ground.”
