Weber County leaders brace for possible flooding, launch sandbag offerings
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- This photo shows a flooded roadway in the Marriott-Slaterville area in 2011. Officials in the city are bracing for potential flooding again with expected rain on Friday, March 10, 2023.
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- Officials in Marriott-Slaterville, Farr West and North Ogden are offering self-service sandbags to residents as a safeguard against potential flooding ahead of rain expected Friday, March 10, 2023. This photo shows a pile of sand in North Ogden.
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- Marriott-Slaterville residents fill sandbags to deal with flooding in 2011. Officials in the city are bracing for potential flooding with expected rain on Friday, March 10, 2023.
MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE — With all the recent snowfall and the forecast for rain, leaders around Weber County are bracing for the possibility of flooding, possibly in coming days.
“We’re repeating the weather cycle of the 2011 flooding,” said Bill Morris, the Marriott-Slaterville city attorney, referring to a particularly wet spring that year that resulted in extensive flooding in western Weber County.
On top of all the recent snowfall, the National Weather Service forecast for the Weber County area calls for a 100% chance of precipitation on Friday. Rainwater can’t penetrate the frozen ground, Morris noted, raising the specter of runoff and overloaded storm drains and waterways depending on how heavy the rainfall is.
Accordingly, some Marriott-Slaterville residents have reached out to city leaders, worried about potential flooding, and public works officials are preparing self-service sandbagging operations for those concerned their homes may be threatened. Many rivers, creeks and waterways wind through the Marriott-Slaterville area on their way to the Great Salt Lake, Morris noted, and if they flood their banks, it can wreak havoc.
“We’re the lowest point in the county,” he said. Runoff water and snowmelt “has to come through us to get to the Great Salt Lake.”
Marriott-Slaterville leaders, who have created teams to help spearhead flood-prevention efforts around the city, aren’t alone.
North Ogden officials, too, are offering sandbags to residents. “With the increasing temperatures and the weather calling for rain, starting (Thursday) we will temporarily be offering sandbags to North Ogden residents for free,” reads a post on North Ogden’s Facebook page.
Officials in Farr West are also offering sandbags, but Mayor Ken Phippen noted the steps taken so far to minimize the flooding potential, including the clearing of obstructions from the rivers, streams and stormwater drains in the city. Marriott-Slaterville and Weber County officials have taken similar steps.
“We believe we’re pretty prepared,” Phippen said. “All we can do is keep an eye on it.”
Indeed, aside from clearing obstructions from rivers, stormwater systems and other conduits for melt-off and other water, there’s not much that can be done to control how much water comes and when it comes.
“It’s always that waiting game with Mother Nature to see how (snowmelt) comes out of the hills,” said Eli Johnson, the Weber County emergency management technician.
That is, if temperatures suddenly spike and stay high, the resulting quick melt-off can cause problems. If temperatures rise and fall gradually as winter becomes spring, by contrast, melt-off is more controlled, reducing the flood potential.
At the same time, sandbags — while they can guide water that overflows creeks, canals and stormwater drains — aren’t a fix for all situations, like if the water table rises, causing basement flooding. “There’s no way to sandbag that,” Morris said.
That’s where sump pumps come in, and Phippen recalls they “were pumping away” in Farr West after a spate of rain last December and early January.