ST. GEORGE — With water still covering it, residents and spring break kids on scooters standing near Lava Flow Drive saw something they rarely ever see. Instead of cars crossing the road, there were ducks.
“Can you believe it?” one resident yelled near Sunbrook Golf Club at the border of Santa Clara and St. George.
The street and the bridge crossing the Santa Clara River were still covered in water Thursday morning. But the sentiment from public officials and others was that the flood mitigation efforts of the last 10 years kept the worst from happening after rain on top of snowmelt raised the Santa Clara and other local rivers as much as 10 feet.
“We did not sustain any damage to public infrastructure or residential properties that I’m aware of,” Santa Clara Mayor Rick Rosenberg said.
The water still covering Lava Flow and the still choppy, muddy and deep waters of the Santa Clara River showed that it’s still far from calm.
With that in mind, even though the skies are now sunny and no further rain is expected in Washington County until Sunday at the earliest, a flood warning remains in effect around the rivers until Thursday evening.
The National Weather Service said the main reason is the rivers remain high but are expected to recede through the day.
“The river crested overnight, and is expected to continue to fall through the day Thursday,” the warning reads. “Due to a large engineering effort, the Santa Clara River cannot change its course through St. George. As a result, flood damage is now limited to adjacent roads, bridges, and the St. George golf course.”
Over the course of the morning, the U.S. Geological Survey’s gauge of the Santa Clara River and Winsor Dam has gone down 5 feet from its crest overnight of nearly 25 feet.
Rosenberg noted that mitigation efforts since the damaging 2005 floods that included creating natural berms across much of the Santa Clara and St. George paid off.
Those efforts also drew the notice of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who noted them during the Thursday taping of the monthly PBS Utah Governor’s Press Conference program.
“In Washington County, we saw rivers far exceeding their banks. There was a lot of preparation work done,” Cox said. “We have new infrastructure to capture that water. We’re much better prepared.”
At the same time, Cox warned that rain combined with snowmelt could still be an issue in the next few months and issued an executive order allowing state executive branch employees to take eight hours of administrative leave to support community flood responses.
Like the weather service, he also warned that it’s still a good idea to stay away from the rivers in Southern Utah on Thursday.
“It’s important for people to realize the danger from driving or going into flood waters,” Cox said. “The potential for drowning is real. Please, please play it safe.”
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