Powerful Storm Dumps Hail, Leaves Behind Damage In Cache County
Jul 29, 2020, 5:18 AM | Updated: 5:31 am
SMITHFIELD, Utah — A powerful storm pushed through Smithfield Tuesday, damaging several houses while coating lawns with inches of hail.
Lisa Anderson said the sky suddenly darkened up after 3 p.m. and rain quickly began to intensify and mix with hail.
“(The hail) got bigger and bigger,” she said. “The water was just flowing everywhere.”
Husband Kelly Anderson said over about a half hour, the hail piled up shin-deep on the grass around his sidewalk.
“The next thing we know, this (storm drain) is backed up because the water came from the north and the south and the east,” Lisa Anderson said.
A stream of water began flowing across the couple’s property.
Kelly Anderson said he grabbed a shovel and started to dig a trench in his yard in an attempt to keep all of the water from flowing inside his home.
As it was, he said inches of water flooded the basement.
“We’re seeing just how much water is saturated in the carpet and the pad, and it’s just squirting up between my toes,” the man said as he toured the mess.
The Anderson home wasn’t the only one to see damage.
The owner of a flooding cleanup business said he had received reports of damage at nine houses in the area, and he acknowledged he represented just one company.
It remained unclear, however, exactly how many houses total in the area were impacted.
Kelly Anderson said he couldn’t believe how bad the weather turned in a matter of minutes.
“I thought, ‘Wow, when it rains, it pours!’” he said. “(We) won’t forget this at all!”