NEWS LIVE: This report contains news live as it develops and is being updated continuously. Bookmark and refresh the page periodically for updates. Last update: 1:30 p.m..
SANTA CLARA – Update 1:30 p.m.: Santa Clara Drive is open. A small portion of Canyon View Drive below the retaining dike remains closed.
Update 12:15 p.m.: Water levels at the retaining dike in Santa Clara are very high. Authorities as well as city engineers are on hand monitoring the overflow system and a small part of Canyon View Drive is closed to allow for overflow to reach the storm drains.
“Right now we are just watching the dike…right now it is functioning like it should,” Officer Chad Holt, public information officer for Santa Clara and Ivins Police Department said, “the overflows are working…there is no concern right now.”
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Video by and courtesy of Dean Aspenberg, St. George News
Just as authorities have opened up lanes of travel on Interstate 15 through the Virgin River Gorge around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Old Highway 91 has now been closed due to flooding.
Travelers on Old Highway 91 are being stopped at Kayenta and not allowed to pass as torrential rains inundate the roadway. Travelers coming from the Beaver Dam area to avoid the Gorge, are also being stopped and not allowed to pass.
Authorities and cleanup crews have been working since early Tuesday morning to assist with flooding throughout Ivins including: Puerto Drive, Center Street, Main Street, Mesa Vista Road.
Rushing water from Puerto Drive is reaching all the way to Lava Ridge Intermediate School on Rachel Drive in Santa Clara.
“I woke up when the alarm went off and walked out to 8 inches of muddy water in my house,” Ivins City resident Paul Bradley said. “Now we are just cleaning up and trying to get all the mud and water out.”
Bradley’s neighbor, Gary Green, was shoveling mud and rocks out of the driveway and said he was just there trying to do his part and help out.
St. George News Reporter Hollie Reina contributed to this report.
Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery.
UPDATED Sept. 10, 8:39 a.m. video credit to Dean Aspenberg rather than his wife, Sharon.
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How can the City Of Ivins spend thousands of dollars on roundabouts and sculptures, and not maintain a storm sewers. Mayor Hart told us two years ago that things would be fixed and we would never have flooding like this again. All the mud from 400 West running through Amber Estates.
What I just can’t understand, is the stupidity of people trying to drive around barricades and even sneak around officers that are at road closures. The road is closed for a reason, idiots!
Maybe they needed to get home to feed the kids and dog.
This is what can happen when you choose to live in a scenic area geologically unsound for residential housing. I can only imagine the inaccessible mess at Vista School on Center Drive, practically at the foot of Red Mountain.
It certainly increases flood risk when the city of Ivins lets the developer require homes to be built below street level in neighborhoods with inadequate drainage.