Flood waters caused some concerns over the weekend along parts of the Weber River, leading to the evacuation of a campground in Coalville.
Residential property damage was minimal over the weekend according to Summit County Public Works Superintendent Tim Richins. But many residents still were worried about the rising water.
“It overshot our neighbor’s sandbags. They had them stacked about nine high for over 100 feet, but lots are gone now,” said Oakley resident Ron Lenfield. “It [the Weber River] is still about a foot lower than the highest I have seen it, but people started preparing early this year since we didn’t know what would happen.”
Coalville Mayor Duane Schmidt said they cleared the river channels early on to prevent debris build up like last year and he suspects that may have helped mitigate flood damage over the weekend.
“We are shifting sandbags to areas we think will need them and have lots of volunteers ready to go if it becomes a problem,” Schmidt said.
Numerous North Summit residents said their fields had flooded, but none had suffered any property loss as of Tuesday.
“Our pasture is full of water, but luckily our cows are smart enough to move to higher land, and better the pasture than our house,” said Coalville resident Chantal Pace.
Most of the damage appeared to be centered near the Echo Island Ranch Camper World in Coalville. The water was so high that the owners were forced to evacuate more than 500 people from the park on Saturday.
“On Thursday the water began to rise, there were kids everywhere and we knew the river banks were becoming unsafe,” said Camper World Park Manager Suzie Leyba.
Camper World’s fire pits filled with water, various roads washed away and electrical boxes were under water throughout the campsites. Leyba reported many camp sites are ruined and once the water runs off and the ground settles, they are expecting even more damage to be revealed. Camper World’s co-Park manager Rick Leyba estimates the damage around $20,000.
“The water is coming from both sides, both the river and the reservoir, we just keep sandbagging and rebuilding berms,” said Rick Leyba.
The Holiday Hills R.V. Park to the north also closed some camp sites and suffered both flood damage and revenue loss.
According to Leyba, Camper World was forced to evacuate last year as well in early June due to flooding. “This year we built a berm and had sandbagged the river ahead of time, we thought we would be ok this time.”
Richins said the only other damage that was reported to Public Works over the weekend was some water running onto Pinion Lane and flooding the backyards of nearby cabins.
“The peak water level has been going down a little bit each night for the past four nights,” said Richins. “It is still above flood stage though.”
With warm temperatures expected for the next two days, Richins said the water level may go back up Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. “We are not out of the woods yet, especially along the upper Weber,” said Richins.
The National Weather Service predicts that the Weber River will reach 10.5 feet on Wednesday morning, more than a foot above flood stage.