Washington County Flooding #wacoflood

As a mobile journalist, I have spent the past 3 days in southwestern Utah reporting for the Salt Lake Tribune on the 2010 Flood in the St. George area. I also had a few reports via telephone for Utah Public Radio. My boss told me to expect a call from them. That was my first time doing news reporting for a radio station. Here is the file from my UPR interview to listen to below.

Below is a chronicle of what I did down there. Lots of pix, video, and stories being told.

Here is the most recent story I wrote along with some other fellow reporters down in St. George.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/50927066-78/wednesday-washington-flooding-residents.html.csp

I learned there are more than 400 dams in Utah, with the majority being earth-filled.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50928078-76/dam-dams-state-filled.html.csp

Dam was holding as of Wednesday morning.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50924373-76/washington-wednesday-county-kemp.html.csp

The first story we wrote after getting down to St. George.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/50921905-78/dam-county-tuesday-river.html.csp

Here are a few fun videos and interesting pix I took on my cell phone of crazy waters, that didn't damage any homes, but looked pretty awesome, nonetheless.

Three whirlpools in New Harmony in the Harmony Heights subdivision. (click the whirlpools text to see the video). Also video of one whirlpool closer up.
This bridge at at the base of the subdivision was not in danger, but further up a few bridges or culverts were in question. Residents said the night before water was actually flowing over the road. A couple TV stations reported that this bridge was the one city officials were worried about, but that was incorrect. It was a different bridge further up the mountain.

Residents in Toquerville and prison inmates, yes prison inmates form Purgatory Correctional Facility were being bussed in who were helping fill sandbags.  Water came close to some homes, but looks like they were safe after sandbagging.
Toquerville private residence was getting help from sandbaggers.

Here the night before in Washington City, water was being pumped out of the storm drains and back into the Virgin River. The streets were flooding because the water from the river was blocking the drains from actually draining. Some homes were sandbagged, but ended up being safe from any flooding damage.

In the city of Ivins water was spilling over the backside of Snow Canyon. It was gorgeous. This pic doesn't quite capture how awesome it was.

This is the superficial erosion on the exterior of the South Creek dam, where the initial concern was raised on Tuesday morning. The dam ended up being fine, despite initial reports of it leaking.

This is a pic of where the 9th hole of a golf course once was at South Creek golf course.  The link to the story about how the flood affected the community recreational areas.  I contributed to this story, with reaction from clients at Southgate.

Here is a picture I took of a road washed out completely on the way up to the dam in Enterprise.