Floods close roads near Wasatch Hollow Park

SALT LAKE CITY — Wasatch Hollow Park is intended to hold large bodies of water for flooding, but with the runoff coming from the mountains, it couldn’t keep up. On Wednesday morning, the water flooded the entire park and onto 1700 South.

“Wasatch Hollow Park is actually a flood retention facility, and there’s a grate that carries emigrations creek water through the city here,” explained Laura Briefer, Director of Salt Lake City Public Utilities.

But after Tuesday’s warm-up, the flow of Emigration Creek increased substantially, forcing overflow into the park and on the roads.

Kaysville homes evacuated as flooding damages road; SLC park closed as creek overflows

“Just the sheer amount of water is pretty unbelievable right now, so we are doing everything we can to make sure we can keep the system flowing correctly and make sure that it has the least amount of impact on the surrounding homes in this area,” said Cade Moncur, Division Director Salt Lake County Flood Control.

Officials said some homes in the area experienced water in basements and backyards, but so far no evacuations have been issued, and the city is hopeful that it will stay that way. Salt Lake County is again asking the public to help keep debris out of storm drain grates near you.

“We are going to see some of this continue into tonight. Hopefully, we will see some of it dissipate. After that, it cools down, and we can keep it in the park, in the pipe system, and within the creek, and get it out of the road is really our biggest effort right now,” Moncur said.

Until then, road crews will be out until conditions are safe enough to reopen the park.