This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Frozen ground and continued rainfall were a recipe for a mess in Cache Valley and other soggy spots in Utah on Saturday.
Flooding also caused temporary freeway closures in northern Utah.
Muddy roads covered in debris and standing water in fields were a common sight as rain fell for the third straight day.
Water ran off the foothills, causing isolated flooding around homes and buildings.
The county has given out at least 25,000 sandbags in the past three days to help residents protect their property, said Rick Williams, Cache County emergency manager.
"It has been an absolute mess in each of these communities this morning," Williams said.
On Saturday, firefighters, police, community and church groups, and volunteers placed thousands of sandbags around homes and buildings to keep the floodwaters at bay.
Carrie Goodsell, of Petersboro, a community northwest of Wellsville, said she hoped the rain would stop or turn into snow. Residents were putting sandbags around canals to keep the water from going anywhere else, she said.
The field around her house was flooded Saturday, and the family was using a tractor to dig ditches to divert the water away from the house.
Communities from Paradise in the south to Richmond in the north — including Logan — were all experiencing "sheet-flooding."
Williams described it as "like rain on asphalt," where water just runs on top of the frozen ground with no place to go.
Williams said as the excess rain runs off the frozen foothills into the valley — where the ground is also frozen — water just pools up at any low-lying area.
As an example of how much water is in the mountains and foothills, Tony Grove in Logan Canyon had 6 inches of water from the snow it received in the past few days, Williams said.
Sheet-flooding has also continued to be a problem in Weber and Morgan counties.
Lance Peterson, Weber County director of emergency management, said crews and volunteers had gone through about 6,000 sandbags in the past three days and continued to pump water away from homes in Liberty on Saturday. A road was closed at 4100 N. 3300 East in Liberty because of hoses draped across the road to pump water away from a home. By mid-afternoon the rain had turned to snow.
Northbound lanes of Interstate 15 near Riverside in Box Elder County were closed for about two hours due to a flooding pond near the freeway.
An on-ramp in Bountiful was also closed for about an hour Saturday afternoon because a creek overflowed near the I-15 northbound ramp from U.S. 89 at about 500 West.
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