OGDEN, Utah — Slowly melting snow is starting to seep into peoples’ homes and impact the levels of the Ogden River.
“It’s a very long morning and a very long evening,” said Savannah Bowdish, whose home started flooding from groundwater on Thursday.
She and her family have crafted a homemade contraption using several pumps and pipes to pump thousands of gallons of water out of her front yard so it doesn’t seep into her home again.
“We’ve had to completely rip out all of the carpet because of the water coming out of the heating vents,” she said, “I don’t think anybody was prepared for this. The ground is so wet and saturated, it just can’t hold the water anymore. So it’s just coming through the homes.”
Dallas Chaffin manages two apartment complexes off 23rd Street in Ogden and is also dealing with groundwater issues.
“I probably extracted over 500 gallons from the basement, and it just seemed to keep coming,” said Chaffin.
He said he even had to move one resident to a different unit as a result of the flooding.
“It’s been a nightmare, and it’s just the beginning as far as I could see,” he said.
Scott Paxman, the general manager of Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, says water levels are only going to get higher. That will impact the groundwater flooding people are already experiencing, as well as waterways like the Ogden River.
“Safe channel capacity is in the 1,600 cubic feet per second range, and we’re releasing about 1,000 right now,” said Paxman. “We’re anticipating that is going to go up to that 1,600, so it’s going to be even worse than what they’re seeing right now.”
He said they are slowly releasing water from the Causey and Pine View reservoirs above the Ogden River to prevent flooding as much as they can, but it will only do so much with this snowpack come May when the snowmelt really starts to flow.
“I anticipate there will be some flooding up above Pine View in the South Fork, in the North Fork areas of the Ogden River where there isn’t as much control. We can’t really control some of those,” he said. “So there will definitely be some flooding there.”
He advised homeowners to prepare with sandbags and monitor the weather.
READ: How to properly fill and use sandbags in case of flooding
As for Bowdish, she said it’s going to take a village to combat this flooding.
“Help your neighbors. Because it’s going to take a lot of cleanup and effort to try and help each other,” said Bowdish.
Paxman also advised residents in the area to avoid outdoor activities near rivers this spring — such as walking (either by themselves or with off-leash pets) or fishing. The water is moving dangerously fast.
