Repair efforts are ongoing throughout the Basin following
Thursday’s
rain and subsequent flooding. According to Duchesne County Commissioner Ron Winterton, road crews are out with graders focused on the hardest hit areas mostly in the southern part of the county. “Most of the area affected is oil field country so a lot of resources out there are trying to put roads back into shape,” explains Winterton. “Officially, I think 3.6 inches of rain fell here in Duchesne County but some people said they were closer to 4 inches.” Commissioner Winterton explained that Roosevelt was also hit hard and a change in drainage systems is likely the cause. “In recent years the drainage and irrigation ditches have been covered and irrigation is run in pipelines so now the distribution of water is totally different when we get a rain storm,” shares Winterton. “We need to back up and reevaluate our flood plans because those systems that we relied on for all these years are now gone.” Planning sessions will be held to discuss storm mitigation into the future.
