Homeowners in Ogden Valley prepare for rising runoff

OGDEN VALLEY, Utah — Parts of the South Fork River started to spill over and threaten some homes and farms in the Ogden Valley.

Some homeowners have been pushing back those riverbanks for months. They say a system of neighbors helping neighbors, that we see so often here in Utah, is helping each of them fight those waters in ways that would be overwhelming on their own.

“It’s pretty incredible how people will respond when people are in dire need,” Craig Wilcox said.

Wilcox and his family have seen it over and over. Friends and neighbors helping them gradually build a four-foot-high wall of sandbags.

Bridge Wilcox said, “End of March, and we had about three feet of snow out here. We had to plow snow to get out of here to put sandbags out here.”

Waterways form all over the field behind their home.

“I never thought we’d have three rivers running through our back year, that’s for sure,” said Abbie Wilcox.

“It’s a little frightening. I mean yesterday we had about ten inches in our crawlspace and we were able to add a couple more pumps,” Craig said. “We got five pumps going right now.”

The volunteers keep coming back.

“A couple of us were saying, ‘Man, we’re just exhausted. Running the long hours early in the morning, getting calls at 7, 7:30 when people are waking up and realizing water is coming in from the evening,” said Darren Funk, a neighbor and volunteer.

A county roads crew was on scene too, clearing branches and trees from the river. Also, a drone from Weber County Sheriff’s Office got a bird’s eye view of the trouble areas.

All of it adds up, working together to move a river which is something the neighbors say they will keep doing.

County roads crews depend in part on homeowners and neighbors to help spot some of those trouble areas.

The drone from the sheriff’s department is typically used for search and rescue but it now being used to check canals and waterways.