ST. GEORGE — A Southern Utah homeowner in the Shadowbrook community of St. George is reeling after flash flooding caused by heavy rainfall during Sunday night’s thunderstorm destroyed her basement.

Darby Meadows was painting in the nearly finished home office in her basement Sunday evening when she heard screaming coming from outside the room, she said.

“I was painting, dancing, so happy, listening to music,” she said, adding that at 8 a.m. Monday, carpet was supposed to be installed and she would finally have her office back after her water heater broke in June.

“Everything in my office was somewhere else in the basement,” Meadows said. “I had just put my kids to bed and then I hear screaming that water was pouring through my daughters’ windows.”

Meadows said she ran to see what was happening and found water gushing “like a geyser” from her shower and toilet and water coming through the corners of the basement windows.

In July of 2019, Meadows’ home flooded for the first time when a toilet soft clog somewhere down the plumbing line backed up, damaging her master bathroom, master bedroom and the downstairs bedroom right below the master.

Meadows said they replaced the downstairs windows after the first flood and hoped they would hold during Sunday’s storm.

“Flash forward to Sunday, I was like ‘Those are new windows, they better hold,'” Meadows said, adding that the windows, which are at the bottom of 5-foot window wells, held, but water found its way through the corners because of so much water pressure.

But it was the water pouring from the toilet and shower that filled her 1,100-square-foot basement with black sewer water, destroying not only the office, but the family living room, a bathroom and her three daughters’ shared bedroom and playroom in which they had recently installed built-in bunk beds.

“This is our third flood, so we are a little experienced, but it was by far the most damaging and scary,” Meadows said. “We didn’t know how far that water was going to go.”

Meadows said they never officially measured the water depth because they were in panic mode, but the water mark on the walls was about 7 inches high.

Beyond the structural damage to the home, most of the family’s memorabilia, furniture, the girls’ toys, brand new school clothes and supplies were all damaged or destroyed.

Meadows said because the flooding was largely caused by a backup of the city’s sewer system, her homeowner’s insurance will not cover the damages.

“I’ve been crying every hour since the flood happened,” she said.

A post on the GoFundMe page set up by Meadows’ sister-in-law Elizabeth Wilson said the following:

My brother and sister-in-law and these three sweet girls lost a lot last night. Practically every children’s toy, book, piece of clothing and their beds were in the room. All the furniture was destroyed along with many important family memorabilia items …

… My twin nieces just turned five this week and just started kindergarten. My oldest niece is nine and just started fourth grade. In addition to repairing their home, they will need to start from scratch on almost everything ‘kid related’ all during the first week of school.

For Meadows, Sunday’s storm and subsequent flooding was really scary because she was so busy putting the finishing touches on her basement office that she had no idea it was coming.

“I was downstairs painting, I didn’t know it was raining outside,” Meadows said. “I didn’t know that my neighbors were flooding or that St. George was having sinkholes, I hadn’t looked at the weather.”

Though Meadows was unaware that the rain was arriving and causing widespread damage across St. George, neighbors and strangers who were aware were quick to arrive at her home and help remove stuff from her basement and help pump water, she said.

“I had legions of angels show up,” Meadows said. “I had teams of people who I didn’t know, who I’ll probably never see again, come downstairs and just pick up furniture and take it to the garage.”

Meadows said they started the salvaging and clean up efforts as a small family and it quickly grew into a community family as people from all over the county responded to help.

“Thank you if you were here at my residence helping us until 3 a.m. scoop water and grab and drag my belongings outside my house,” Meadows said. “You’ll always be in my prayers of gratitude.”

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