Flood Waters Recede in Duchesne County, Still Plenty of Work Ahead

DUCHESNE COUNTY, Utah – People move to the Pinnacles area in Duchesne County to relax.

“It is beautiful,” said one longtime resident while looking at the scenic rocks that surround many of the homes.

However, there was no taking it easy this weekend.

Lots of residents were cleaning up and doing what they could to protect their homes from another possible flood.

“By the time we got there, they had two to three feet of water in the parking lot itself,” said one resident, who asked not to be identified.

55 people had to be evacuated Friday night as a rainstorm moved over the area.

It dumped water on the Dollar Ridge scar left behind from last year’s wildfire.

“This was hard. This is just as bad as or worse than it was last year,” said Mike Lefler, who is the Duchesne County Emergency Management Director.

That rainstorm caused the area to flood and left behind plenty of debris and mud.

By Saturday afternoon, the flood waters receded, but Lefler said it was still too dangerous to let homeowners back to their properties.

“We want to do everything we can to help the people. We truly do. We want to get them back into their homes and hopefully the resort, but at this point, there’s a lot of safety concerns down here right now,” said Lefler. “There’s still a lot of stuff up there in the event of another big storm that could some more heavy problems.”

That’s why the road leading into the Pinnacles is still officially closed while county crews assess what the storm left behind.

Some homeowners were allowed to briefly check their property but had to quickly come back out.

Another reason for the caution is because of a small bridge.

Water was going over the top of the bridge Friday night and debris is now stuck underneath it.

It’s one of the main access points for the area and county crews are concerned about its structural integrity.

“It’s been hit a lot. It took a lot of pressure. Three times for sure,” said Lefler.

That bridge is something Duchesne County Commissioner Greg Todd is also worried about.

However, that’s for later.

For now, he’s more worried about the residents in the area after a second straight year of having to deal with a natural disaster.

“Makes your heart feel for these people,” said Todd. “It’s tough. And the thing is, we can’t control it. As human beings, we think we can control anything. And this is Mother Nature, and Mother Nature does what it does.”

The good news is nobody was hurt.

The bad news is there’s a lot of cleaning up and repairs to do.

Residents say they’ll get it through, though.

Again.

“This is what we do. You help everybody because that’s the way it is up here,” said the resident who didn’t want to be identified. “We help each other out because it’s the right thing to do. We’ll be okay.”

Maybe then they can relax.