CEDAR CITY, Utah — A day after heavy storms brought flash flooding to parts of Southern Utah, the clean up and preparation for possibly more flooding began in Cedar City on Friday.
According to the Cedar City Fire Department, on Thursday two inches of rain fell in just half an hour.
"We had water that was circling around from the road coming in and flooding the boiler room," said Intermountain Cedar City's Hospital Administrator Eric Packer, who said water came into other areas as well.
Packer says they had people called in from home who wanted to pitch in and help.
"We put sandbags along the south side of the hospital just because water was actually just coming through the walls, so that's why we wanted to get the sandbags up just to provide that extra barrier to protect the building, so we could continue to be operational," said Packer.
Crews also spent the day on the south side of the hospital creating a dike to mitigate any other potential flooding.
Packer says the hospital is fully operational now, and that they've only had to cancel and reschedule elective surgeries.
Across town, residents and county officials spent part of the day volunteering their time to fill sandbags.
"I have over 100,000 empty sandbags, so I've got plenty of sandbags I prepared for this season," said George Colson, Iron County Emergency Manager.
He said water did get into the Iron County Jail, but no inmates had to be moved out of the facility.
"We're worried about the jail, we're worried about the hospital, we're worried about people's homes, (and) we're concerned about our infrastructure," said Colson.
Because of ongoing flooding threats, he's asking the public to be prepared.
"If you've got low lying property, get it sandbag, you know, divert the water somehow and just watch out, be careful."
Colson said pumps in Washington County are on alert if they are needed to help with any flooding they may get in the area on Friday or throughout the weekend.
