Saturday’s heavy storm affected residents and businesses throughout Uintah County. Vernal City Manager Quinn Bennion shares that there were many downed trees, power outages, and flooding of store entrances on Vernal Main Street. “Several business owners placed sandbags at their Main Street entrances to minimize water damage,” explains Bennion. “Vernal City public works crews were called out after the storm to remove debris from the streets, drains and fix wind-blown signs and banners. Vernal and Naples City police officers and Uintah County deputies secured downed power lines until power crews could respond. The downtown flooding during large storm events brings concern to the affected business owners, motorists, shoppers, visitors and city officials [but] there is a solution on the horizon,” continues Bennion. “Vernal City officials have worked with UDOT officials for the past two years to prioritize and fund a downtown drainage project along US40 (Main Street). The $2.4 Million dollar drainage project will add another 24 inch drain line on the south edge of Main Street from 400 W to 500 E. The project is out for bid for construction this next week. The selected contractor has from August 1st through the end of June 2021 to complete the project.” In the meantime, the clean up from the weekend storms continues. Uintah County stepped up over the weekend to help by providing sandbags for those needing them and the Uintah County Landfill was opened for storm debris cleanup with free drop-offs.
