Hundreds Help With Cleanup In Randolph After Mud, Rocks Fill Basements

RICH COUNTY, UTAH — Some homeowners near Randolph spent the entire day cleaning up after loads of mud and rocks filled their basements following a heavy storm over the weekend.

In one home, waters were more than six-feet high.

Beginning on Saturday, flood waters rushed in through garages and broke through basement windows.

“A lot of the stuff is just stuff. You can buy new stuff, but a lot of the photos, you can’t,” Christie Thornock said as she leafed through the albums they were able to save. “I came home to check on my pumps and the road was a river. I couldn’t even get to the house. I had to turn the car around and go back through town.”

Roughly four-feet of mud and water poured into her basement.

“It’s scary” Thornock said. “It’s your whole life, it’s your home that is being washed away.”

But still, that’s nothing compared to what happened down the road.

“By the time we got here, it had breached the fences, come out of the canyon here,” said Norm Weston.

Weston said water, mud and rocks pushed into his basement, then out through the other side, filling it with mud.

“And so, it just all barreled down here and took out the fences and went in and busted into the basement,” he said.

Here's another shot of that pile of mud, followed by the video a neighbor shot of the mud and water, gushing down Sunday. pic.twitter.com/Spc0lbpUP3

— Mike Anderson (@mikeandersonKSL) August 2, 2021

Without waiting for a call, several people showed up to help, and many more came the next morning — bailing out the water and digging out Weston’s basement.

“Somebody says, ‘What can we do to help?'” he said. “I says, ‘I don’t have a clue. I don’t know how we can get out of there.'”

But Weston said they did it.

Church was canceled in the area for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and well over 100 people turned up to help Weston. Another 40 helped at the Thornock home.

“Just the love that you feel for the people in the community that you share, and you could feel the love they have for you,” Thornock said.

So much work that they said would have never gotten done on their own.

“Yeah, it was pretty awesome,” said Weston.

Thornock said the waters ruined her home salon.

Weston lost nearly everything that was down in his basement, but they both said what really counts could never be brought or replaced by insurance.

“Everybody’s okay and we had all kinds of friends helping us,” said Weston.

Residents said local businesses also provided tractors to help with cleanup efforts.