Orem officials call Tuesday’s storm greater than once-in-a-century; residents continue to cleanup

OREM — Orem city officials are calling Tuesday night’s storm a 100-year-plus event. 

The quick moving rain and hail storm turned roads into rivers and filled up basements, garages and bottom level condos.

The city’s water detention basin that includes a skate park turned into a pond. Kids were swimming in it rather than skating in it.

“We’ve had a storm event that I’ve never seen before. I’ve lived here and worked for the city for 30 years,” said Chris Tschirki, public works director for Orem. “We anticipate that this event was greater than a 100-year event that came through Orem, Lindon, and Pleasant Grove area.”

For residents like Oscar Barrientos, who arrived in Utah with his family from Chile three years ago, it’s been a heartbreaking and devastating day. His entire lower level condo located in the area of 1200 W.  1400 North is destroyed inside, after a waterfall came rushing in.

“All of a sudden the door burst open and got all the water in here. About 2 feet you can see the lines right here,” Barrientos said. “Everything is gone. It’s horrible. We got here with suit cases and we are back to suit cases again.”

The massive storm Tuesday night took everyone by surprised. No one was expecting so much water and hail to come down so quickly. In another neighborhood not from Barrientos, furniture, and household items could be seen stretched out all across front lawns.

Residents are grateful so many people came out to help.

“We literally had a river going down the road,” said resident Jeffrey Turner. “It was pretty insane. We had two to three sump pumps, we had 40 or 50 people with buckets dragging all the water out.”