The Flood after the Fire! 7/29/14

July 29, 2014 was the day of my annual 8 hour bus in-service so I left 

home early.  I had a meeting with the Stake R.S. President after that so 

Dad beat me home.  That was a good thing!  I knew there had been heavy rain fall in
Nephi, but I was not prepared for what I saw when I got home. We can now verify that

BIG Fires, followed by BIG rain storms equals BIG flood!

This is what Dad saw when he got home.  Luckily he realized some great blogging 

material was near by so he grabbed the camera. :)  Scott Fautin is on the tractor 

trying to divert the flood water from Uncle Marv's yard.  

 We have never seen such a BIG stream racing through our front yard. 

              We had never seen flooding in the back yard!

The garden was flooded!

The corral was flooded!  But Eclipse was smart enough the "seek higher ground."

 The bottom of the front lawn was well under water.  Can you see my little flower bed? 

This is a close up of its sad, sorry state. 

This is what it looked like by the time I got home.  

The water had already peaked and started to recede.

Dad called and left me a message to call home before leaving Nephi. 

 I could tell it was urgent.  This picture helps explain why. 

 There was so much water crossing our road, he was afraid

 the car would float away if I tried to drive through it.

Jim Brown had driven Dad down the lane from work as Casey didn't dare drive 

his car through it.  In addition, the highway was closed south of Levan because a diesel was 

stuck in the HUGE rock/mud slide near the dairy.  I needed to know my only 

hope to get home was around by the coal yard and up Powell Lane.

This is the river leaving our yard and down through the field.

  We were grateful the Potters and Shirleys were no longing camping right here! 

Dad picked me up at Marv's.   Seeing their backyard made me super sad. 

It was a disaster! 

 Uncle Marv's front yard wasn't a lot better.

The water came down so fast there were still dry patches on the east side of Marv's house. 

We headed east to check on our neighbors up there.  Looking back home was memorable.

The bar pits were full and water flooded across Powell Lane in several spots.  

There were several small mud/rock slides on the face of the foot hill.  

Anywhere the black from the fire is gone gives evidence of a slide.

These loaders had dug the diesel free from this area by then, but 

they were still working feverishly to clear the road. 

You can see the volume of debris that flooded into the Bateman's field at the end of Powell Lane.

This shot was taken from Scott's yard and they were in good shape at this time.

If this house had a basement it would have been full!  Their yard was trashed! 

We headed back towards the farm because we could see a
 lot going on down to Uncle Dale's house. 

Bateman's hay field north of the lane sustained some damage.

So did the  Uncle's hay field. 

The water on the south of Powell Lane had peaked,
but the north side stream was still rising.  

 

We could quickly see that Uncle Dale's home was in jeopardy. 

A crew had already gathered to try and divert the
water across Powell Lane to the South side.

We later learned that when the first ton bale was placed in the road, the flood 

waters were so high and strong the bale began to move.  Shawn had to hold 

it in place with his tractor until another  bale was placed on top of it. 

The next photos show that the crew had an uphill battle at Uncle Dale's. 

Uncle Dale's front yard. 

 This is Dad clearing the bar pit near Uncle Dale's.

Uncle Dale's back yard.

Uncle Dale's driveway. 

Diversion efforts continue! 

 Men (and Jessica Shepherd) started showing up in numbers.

Most came in irrigation boots and carried a shovel.

They all worked hard, but I really think they were having a little bit of fun.

Jessica Shepherd easily held her own with the guys.  She was 

the only woman who showed up in mucking attire. 

Shawn Shepherd worked hard, too and I could tell

 he was super proud of his high performance wife! 

 About this time a little rabbit was discovered struggling

 in the flood water.  Dusty Ballow rescued it.

 

The poor little thing was exhausted, filthy and shivering. Dusty wiped it off and set it free.

 

This is Shawn Shepherd's truck.  You can tell he wasn't

dainty when he plowed through the slimy flood water. 

This is the pasture between Uncle Dale and the shop.

 Things were looking more promising for Uncle Dale, 

so attentions turned to Uncle Alan's place.

 

 Dad knew where all the culverts were
so he cleared each one as we passed.

 Aunt Sheree's east lawn and garden got clobbered. 

You can see the water is making it way west from Uncle Alan's.  The crew 

began clearing and deepening the bar pit to encourage the water to go on by. 

The culvert had been crushed and was restricting the water's flow

so Dad, Shawn and Blake Aagard got a pipe and tried to pry it open to no avail. 

Plan B was to hook a chain inside and use the tractor. 

 That plan worked!

Uncle Alan and Scott Fautin arrived to help the ground crew open the bar pit. 

 

The crew  just moved further down the bar pit and kept shoveling. 

 When Uncle Gord showed up to assist them, a surprise showed up.

A little skunk that had held up in the culvert under the road decided to change residence.

He was in such a hurry that he didn't raise any stink!

 Back at home, the water had receded, but was still flowing.

Dad thought I could drive the car home from Uncle

Marv's so I did, but Dad had to squirt it off. 

THE REMAINING PICTURES WERE TAKEN THE NEXT MORNING.

July 30, 2014

 Our back lawn.

Our driveway.

My flower bed and lilacs. ): 

The standing water is super yucky.  It almost has an oily film. 

My lilacs may never recover. ): 

The sludge even made its way up my little desert stream. 

Our north hay field is a mess! 

The slimy sludge still glistens in the corral. 

Dad's furrows in the garden are full a the fine silt, ash and mud. 

It is clear that the earth worms had their own trauma because of the flood. 

The tallest weeds along the bar pits have high water marks on all sides.

The highway between the east end of Powell  Lane and the dairy is 

open, but the foot hills will never be the same.

The sludge pools reek of fire.

This shows how thick the rock slide over the highway where the diesel got stuck was. 

Bateman's field will be in recovery for a long time. 

Shepherds had flash floods on both sides, but none that threatened their homes.

 

Levan Town had it's own excitement.  This is the bridge near where Tanner's lived.  

The water was so deep it flowed over this bridge where I am parked! 

 Then it slammed into this little bridge and broke into two streams. 

There was still water coming this morning.

The Levan area will long wear the scars and filth of the 

past five days.  But the memory of how the people rushed to aid those in harms

 way will warm our hearts forever.  Levan is a great place to weather a storm!

The after math!  8/2/14 & 8/4/14
As the pool at the bottom of the hill stagnated, we decided we
 needed some way to drain it and to handle future floods better.
So---Dad decided to put in a couple of 12 inch culverts.

As the thinner cover of sludge dries, it cracks and curls.

In other places the sludge is still more like jello.

It's been a week since the flood and this is what our lawn looks like. 

Dad made the cement and is free handed the collar around the east side of our road.

The finishing touches.

 Say "Hi".