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And the Great Utah Flood Watch continues.

Residents in some Utah communities spent another day Saturday trying to hold back waters, and a weather monitor predicted some rivers will continue rising into next month.

But while there was some flooding Saturday in eastern and southern parts of Utah, only minor property damage - mostly flooded basements - was reported.

High temperatures are sending the water rushing out of the mountains. Brian McInerney, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service, said snow is now melting 24 hours a day throughout Utah. In northern Utah - where he said about every stream or river is at its highest level in five years - snow is melting at 1 1/2 inches per day. It's 2 inches a day in the southern half of the state.

McInerney said the snowmelts were delayed this year by an extended stretch of cold and wet weather. Then that was followed by temperatures that reached over 100 degrees in some places.

"The combination of those two is a really bad thing," the hydrologist said. "That's when you get your most efficient runoff."

McInerney said he expects waterways in lower elevations to begin peaking Wednesday or Thursday and higher-elevation streams and rivers likely won't begin cresting until the first week of June, he said.

But in most cases, the cresting will not be at flood level, McInerney said.

Saturday in Iron County, Wendy Hartman watched the water rise in front of her house, but she did not notice it also creeping through tall weeds in an adjacent lot. Water soon filled her septic tank and leach field, causing water to back up in her basement.

"We had to rip up the carpet and bleach it down," Hartman said as she stood in her basement, where the smell of bleach verified her tactics. "The smell was so bad we had to sleep with the doors open last night."

Hartman lives in Midvalley Estates, which has become the ground-zero of flooding woes in Iron County. Saturday was the fifth day that residents in the subdivision five miles northwest of Cedar City have joined forces with the county to fill sandbags and build up a dirt berm to keep water from crossing a road and seeping into homes.

The water is from Coal Creek, and it flows down Cedar Canyon through Cedar City before running into a network of culverts and ditches that branches across the floor of Cedar Valley. In some locations the water has turned farmland into wetlands and has threatened homes.

Robert Tuckett, president of the Midvalley Water Co., which has helped organize relief efforts, said water levels in a field and ditch that parallel Midvalley Road looked stable until early Saturday.

"Until about 4:30 a.m., I thought we dodged another bullet," he said. "But then it [water] started to rise higher than I've ever seen."

Midvalley Estates resident Sarah Englestead was one of about 50 people who showed up Saturday to help fill sandbags. She was with daughter Madeline, 3, who helped hold open bags, and her 1-year-old son Sterling, who just watched from the child carrier on his mother's back.

Englestead said things could have been a lot worse, but the subdivision has been preparing by organizing volunteers and getting sandbags since February in anticipation of what's now unfolding.

"This is the most organized neighborhood in the county," she said.

Charlie Morris, director of the county's emergency services, said Saturday the volume of water moving down Coal Creek was just more than 800 cubic feet per second, after peaking after midnight Friday at just over 1,000 cubic feet per second. The magic number that will elevate concern among officials and send the river out of its banks in places is 1,300 cubic feet per second.

In Uintah County, authorities were using heavy equipment to shore up the banks of a creek that skirts the north end of Vernal, where sandbags guarded the most vulnerable homes. Ashley Creek was hovering near its banks and approaching flood stage Saturday, threatening to swamp basements of 30 to 40 houses, trailer houses and condominiums, authorities said.

The Whiterocks River also was running over its banks on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation, where more heavy equipment and sand bags were being used to contain it.

In Springdale, the Virgin River was cooking along Saturday afternoon at 1,800 cubic feet per second - a decline from its Friday night high of 2,900 cubic feet per second and well below its flood stage of 5,275 cubic feet per second.

And folks in Springdale really didn't pay it much mind.

The river channel is much more narrow in the small town outside of Zion National Park than it is downstream at St. George. Nonetheless, it was business as usual for merchants as high temperatures brought a rush of visitors right along with the muddy snowmelt.

"Business is great," said Kathy Davidson of Zion Canyon Coffee Co. "I thought the high gas prices would keep people away. But people are coming. It seems like it doesn't matter about last January's flooding or high gas prices."

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Flood alerts

Temperatures in central and southern Utah are forecast to be in the 80s and 90s. In St. George, temperatures probably will top 100 today. The National Weather Service, as a result, has issued a flood warning and several flood watches.

A flood warning will remain in effect in the upper Sevier River until further notice. By late morning on Tuesday, the upper Sevier from the headwater areas to the Piute Reservoir is expected to reach as high as about 5 feet - more than a foot above flood stage, the National Weather Service said.

A flood watch has been issued for the lower Weber River from its outlet at Weber Canyon to the Great Salt Lake, which was forecast to be near flood stage by Wednesday.

Flood watches also have been issued for Coal Creek near Cedar City; the north fork of the Virgin River; and the streams of the Beaver Mountains.