KAYSVILLE—Residents in the new Orchard Ridge subdivision in Kaysville were left reeling last week as a flood came rushing through, creating a ravine in the road swallowing dumpsters and leaving driveways and sidewalks hanging. Most of the homes in the area were under construction.

“We’re relying on preliminary information but it looks like it happened sometime late Tuesday or Wednesday morning,” said Kaysville Public Works Director Josh Belnap. “A storm drain that was part of the subdivision became plugged and as the water continued to come down the mountain instead of going through the pipes pushed open a manhole and the water went on the road itself.”

Water started flowing out on the low side of a section of curb for a future driveway and caused it to collapse, he said. “Dumpsters and palettes and other items took up space and forced the water out onto the road and destroyed an underground pipe.”

The street is now lined with sandbags, said Belnap. “We’ve got the water isolated down the street to keep it away from the area that’s already eroded so we can get to the underground storm drain and send it to the Great Salt Lake.” 

There are two sections of roadway and we won’t know where all the areas are that are damaged until we can assess it, he said. “Everything will have to be rebuilt. All of the roads will have to be dug up and utilities and pipes buried and a new concrete sidewalk built. We’re putting a plan together but it’s going to be a significant project.”

Belnap said they’ll have to get contractors, etc. “When we’ll do that and who is going to do that – it’s too early to tell at this point.”

There were four occupied homes, he said. “The rest were under construction. Two of the homes have limited access but the utilities are off. The additional two homes have access but the utilities are shut off so they can’t run water heaters, flush toilets and you can’t turn the lights on.”

The main focus right now is on keeping the water off the roadway so it can’t continue to erode, said Belnap. “But that’s not a long term solution. This is going to take months and months and months and we can’t have water going down the street. We’ll bypass the piping and intercept access at the top to put it somewhere else to make reconstruction possible. We’ve asked property owners if we can put piping through their property to take the water to a different location.”

There’s a large culvert under 89 to the south, he said. “This is where the water would normally go but this will send it a different way.”

All of the city’s reserves of sandbags were used up Wednesday, said Belnap. “We got 1,000 from the county and the church gave us 3,500 bags. There was an army of volunteers that filled an additional 2,000 to 3,000 bags. Our greatest asset is the people who live there. The amount of work they put in was truly incredible.” 

Linda Perkes’ son and daughter-in-law had just gotten the keys to their new home Tuesday night before the flood. “They hadn’t slept overnight,” she said. “They moved some things into the garage but there were a few final things that needed to be done so workers were in the home. My son decided to stay with their friends one more night instead of in their home.”

It turned out to be good, she said. “It happened in the night and blocked access to the home. It’s a good thing they had their cars because they may have gotten stuck.”

Perkes lives in Cache Valley and came when she heard the news. “When I stood and viewed it in person it was 10 times worse than I imagined,” she said. “It was heart wrenching.”

It’s a tough thing, said Perkes. “It’s taken 15 months for my son’s house to be built. They’ve tried to build their home all winter but there have been delays due to the weather. They were so ecstatic about moving in. This has been a heavy blow. We’re all so heartbroken.” λ