SALT LAKE CITY — For many Salt Lake City residents living on or near 1700 South on Wednesday night, it was a long and sleepless night.
"My wife did not sleep," Japheth Long said.
Hundreds of sandbags line the streets of 1700 South and surrounding neighborhoods, residents like Japheth and Brittany Long were out sandbagging Thursday for hours to prevent potential flood waters from damaging their homes.
"I assumed we had flood insurance, and we do for plumbing issues, but we do not for natural disasters, so I bought a policy it was a 30-day waiting period and we're like 12 to 13 days into that period," Brittany Long said.
If sandbags are not enough, the Longs say they have a backup plan Brittany's brother devised based on the 1983 Lake Powell intervention at Glen Canyon Dam.
"They got sheets of plywood four feet high and stacked them on top of the dam so our next plan if it gets really bad is to stack them against this fence right here with sandbags at the bottom," Brittany Long said.
Just down the street dozens of volunteers, shovels in hand, came to help with sandbagging. Wednesday night Salt Lake City says they had hundreds, if not thousands, of people, also show up to help.
"When you come out here and you're on the street and people that you don't know are out here, people in the community it makes you feel good," said volunteer Ben Friele.
For Friele volunteering in times like this is what matters.
"Everyone likes to see change, but I think you got to be part of it, you gotta get out there and do the work," Friele said. "I'm a blue-collar guy I work in plumbing, and I dig trenches most days, so I figured I got skills why don't I get out here and use them."
Despite the stress the flood is causing, Friele and the Longs say Salt Lake City has prepared well from crews responding to prior notices.
"You see the public utilities all the time cleaning storm drains and doing everything they can so if you see any public utility guys out here give them a thank you," Friele said.
"I've been getting emails and texts because of our property address sharing the flood plane map, sharing the resources of where to get the sandbags, they update like every two weeks what they're predicting would happen with the water flow," Long said. "I don't think if they wouldn't have done that I would have any idea."
If you are looking to help with flood mitigation efforts Salt Lake City Public Utilities says they will have information for volunteer opportunities this weekend on their social media and website.
