OGDEN -- The water has receded, and crews are busy cleaning and repairing Fort Buenaventura.
"Cross our fingers, we should be open this weekend," said Weber County Parks and Recreation Manager Jim Carter.
The park already has a family reunion booked for the bowery this weekend, which, along with individual sites, will be ready shortly.
The group area is still closed.
The cool, wet weather and resultant flooding took a heavy toll on the county and Fort Buenaventura, which lost many weddings and family reunions planned for the area.
"We tried to accommodate them in other areas, but a lot of the other places were full," said Carter, who has been keeping in touch with people who made reservations months in advance.
Now, with the warmer weather, crews are mowing lawns, removing fallen branches and clearing the silt left by weeks of floodwaters.
For the most part, Carter said, Fort Buenaventura is in good shape. Sandbagging efforts helped keep water out of the restrooms, and the grass is firm enough to handle tractors driving over it.
"It went from extremely wet to extremely dry," Carter said. "It was amazing."
But while places like Fort Buenaventura are already open for business, western parts of Weber County are still under water, leaving many farmers hoping the water dries out by next week.
Utah Department of Agriculture and Food Public Information Officer Larry Lewis said farmers are facing about $10 million in damage caused by the flooding.
The floods pushed back the planting season for months, leaving some farmers scrambling to plant crops with a shorter growing time.
Those who got seeds into the ground before the flooding will never get to see the plants sprout. Others face broken corrals and fences, as well as ruined stacks of hay.
Some lucky farmers invested in crop insurance and should be able to cover their losses.
"Others didn't, and they just have to suffer the consequences," Lewis said.
Many will have to wait until the end of the growing season to see the overall effect of the flood damage.
If a county suffered a 30 percent loss, the federal government will declare it a disaster area and farmers will qualify for benefits, such as low-interest loans, to help them the following year.
In the end, many can still look forward to plenty of water in area reservoirs, but that is little consolation to people with land still under water.
"Right now," Lewis said, "there is more negative than positive with all this water."
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