A levee along the Weber River broke Tuesday afternoon, putting several homes in danger of flooding.
Officials and community members were sandbagging to protect about seven homes in Plain City after the levee broke around 1 p.m., said Weber County sheriff's Lt. Mark Lowther.
"It's flooded so bad we can't actually get out there" to fix the levee or assess the size of the breach, Lowther said. "The water is moving up a hay field. It's just rolling across the field to the houses. They'll try to sandbag, but there's only so much you can do."
As flood concerns in Cache and Salt Lake counties receded Tuesday, Weber County residents remained on alert.
In Marriott-Slaterville, water had crept "right up to the back porches" of half a dozen homes on a hillside, Lowther said.
"There's a 4-foot-high fence post and you can barely see the top of the post it's so high," he said.
Elsewhere around the state, the sandbaggers won round one of a spring flooding thriller. But a Monday deluge that swelled some northern Utah waterways out of their banks is only the beginning of a flood season that could stretch into June.
The continued cold, wet weather is delaying the snowpack runoff, setting the stage for more flooding when temperatures do warm up.
Still, property owners along the Blacksmith Fork River in Cache County were expressing relief Tuesday as the weather broke and relatively cool temperatures slowed any lower elevation runoff.
But at the Maughan's summer cabin, about 2 1/2 miles up Blacksmith Fork Canyon, they know the coming spring runoff poses a big threat.
"Even though we dodged a bullet yesterday, I'm not going home until the sandbags are up all around the cabin," said Jan Maughan.
Heavy rains raised the Blacksmith Fork River by two feet Sunday and Monday, threatening a number of cabins in the narrow canyon and inundating a summer RV park. At the Maughan place, Amanda Scothern was busy Tuesday filling sandbags with Jeremy Davis and Simon McCarthy.
"The water is down now, but it's going to come back again," Scothern said. "I don't think we're through even a quarter of the runoff."
Since early March, Utah has received two storms a week, said Brian McInerney, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service. That doesn't bode well for late spring flooding due to high runoff.
"The bigger picture is that we are delaying our melt and compressing our runoff window," he said.
More rain is expected Wednesday and Thursday. But it shouldn't be enough to cause more flooding this week, McInerney said.
Neither rain nor runoff is welcome at the Riverside RV Park in Logan, said resident Doug Mallette. The park sits next to the Blacksmith Fork River near State Road 91 and 1700 South.
Flood waters rose about six inches in the park Monday but didn't damage any motor homes. Tuesday, about three inches remained on the grounds.
"My wife can't get into the pickup without waders," Mallette said. "Hopefully this will subside before the next storm."
Residents and property owners in Salt Lake County's Emigration Canyon were glad to see a break in the weather, too.
On Monday, Pam Crowther watched as Emigration Creek spilled over its banks and into her yard. "I was getting nervous," she said.
The water had receded more than a foot by Tuesday, but not before it caused minor flood damage to Crowther's guest home and caused a retaining wall that supported a footbridge to her home to sink.
County workers who were dredging culverts and bridges Tuesday removed the bridge, fearing it might fall into the creek, damming its waters.
Joe Smolka, a neighbor who Crowther had met the night before, and two other men went to work building a new bridge to the woman's home Tuesday afternoon.
Smolka, who heads up the canyon community's emergency preparedness efforts, said hundreds of volunteers filled sandbags and secured the creek's banks Sunday and Monday, as the storm began.
"I was standing on a bridge [Monday] and I walked off it so I could hear my phone," said Smolka. "I looked back and there was six inches of water on the bridge. It was pretty wild."
Still, Smolka said Monday's troubles were relatively minor in Emigration.
"Seventy-five, '83, '84, '89 are the years I consider floods," he said. "A lot of people on the news are saying it's the worst they've ever seen. I'm not there. I'm not there by a foot."
Venerable Ruth's Diner was open for business Tuesday after Monday's high water on Emigration Creek forced the place to close.
Owner Tracy Nelson said crews were cleaning up the lower patio area that was flooded. And she said they likely haven't seen the last of spring flooding.
"We're anticipating that it will come up again once the weather heat's up," she said of the creek.
Nonetheless, Nelson said the upper patios could be open by the weekend, weather permitting.
csmart@sltrib.com
Waters retreat but spring flood season has only just begun
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Credit: By Christopher Smart And Aaron Falk The Salt Lake Tribune
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