A southern Utah city and highways surrounding it were flooded Sunday night. The conditions were made worse by a 71,000-acre wildfire that burned in the area a month before.
After Sunday’s rain, several roads were flooded, covered in debris or eroded, said Utah Department of Transportation spokesman John Gleason, including Highway 143 in Parowan Canyon between Parowan and the town of Brian Head.
Three homes flooded, Parowan Police Chief Ken Carpenter said, a number he said was “quite lucky,” though the city remained at risk for more rain and high water levels in the creek Monday night.
Several other roads had also been damaged by the storm, he said, and northbound lanes on Interstate 15 had been closed Monday due to flooding, but they were reopened that night. Carpenter hadn’t heard a cost estimate of the damage as of Monday night, he said.
The Brian Head Fire, which began June 17 and burned for nearly a month, had destroyed several of the city’s flood-safety measures, including a bay for drainage and irrigation, Carpenter said. Without those measures in place, the weekend rainfall ruptured a pressurized irrigation line in several spots and washed out roadways.
The wildfire also left behind a ”burn scar” — or an area where trees and vegetation had been charred or destroyed — increasing the city’s risk of flooding for the next three to five years, Carpenter and Gleason said.
UDOT crews were removing debris and attempting to repair erosion Monday night, Gleason said. A 15-mile stretch of Highway 143 that had been closed late Sunday night due to road damage was expected to reopen Tuesday morning.
Gleason cautioned drivers not to make risky moves during a flood.
“Even when the flooding was happening and there were obvious areas where the road was washing away or was in danger of washing away, there were still people driving into those areas,” he said. ”Please don‘t take any chances. Stop and call 911 to let us know about it.”
Carpenter said that weather experts had cautioned residents to not use basements as living areas or bedrooms, especially for children.
The water can flow rapidly enough to ”break windows” and ”slam doors,” Carpenter said. When the flow is strong enough, it can put pressure on the doors to the point where they won’t open, and people living in the basements could drown.
Residents who need sandbags can pick them up at the Parowan Fire Department, Carpenter said.