Flood risk decreases in central, southern Utah
Jun 7, 2023, 11:30 AM
CEDAR CITY, Utah — For the first time in more than a month, the National Weather Service has downgraded the risk of flood for the Sevier River in central and southern Utah.
The National Weather Service canceled its flood advisory for the Sevier River in Garfield, Iron, Kane, Piute and Sevier Counties on Wednesday. That was the last remaining flood advisory in place in the state.
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“Flows have decreased below action stage and are expected to remain as such, so the advisory is cancelled,” the agency wrote in canceling the alert.
Flood risk reduced but not gone in Utah
That does not mean no flood risk exists. KSL Meteorologist Kevin Eubank called the flood advisory cancellation a good sign on KSL NewsRadio’s Dave & Dujanovic but added spring snowmelt continues.
“The majority of the state, the areas, are out of the woods, but localized flooding is definitely still possible, and we still could be talking about a river that leaves its banks and floods out a park or a neighborhood or even a home,” he said. “All things considering, for having the historic snowpack that we had and the potential for a – just a catastrophic melt, it just couldn’t have happened any better.”
Past prep, current volunteering pays off
Eubank says the conditions, a nice gradual warm-up rather than a sudden heat wave, combined with preparations made after historic flooding in 1983, helped head off major problems with flood risk in Utah this year.
He also pointed to lessons learned.
“The municipalities and the counties and the state – they can’t do it all,” Eubank said, praising volunteer efforts. “Had we not put sandbags where we put sandbags and built sand walls where we put sand walls, there would have been more damage.”
