Small central Utah town hit extra hard by weekend flooding

SANPETE COUNTY, Utah — Almost half the homes in Fountain Green City saw some sort of damage from Sunday’s flooding. Some basements only got a few inches of water, others got multiple feet.

Volunteers of all ages were at City Hall until Monday evening filling up sandbags in preparation for upcoming rain.

Lewis Rasmussen was one of the many community members lending a hand.

“It’s an amazing little town. Amazing state, actually,” he said.

Fountain Green is a small city in Sanpete County with a population of approximately 1,200 people.

“Places I never thought would get any water in any place were hit,” said Rasmussen. “Just the luck of the draw of what part of town you were in.”

The American Red Cross’s disaster relief crew also arrived Monday afternoon to help.

“Our priority focus is that human suffering aspect, to make sure that wherever that suffering is because of the flood, we are able to assist with that,” said Benjamin Donner, the executive director of the American Red Cross of Central & Southern Utah Chapter.

Neighbors moved damaged belongings out of basements. Some sat on the front lawn and dried old yearbooks page-by-page.

“We were so overwhelmed this morning but within an hour there was probably thirty or fourty guys here. There were just tons of tons of material to take out,” said Preston Cox.

Cox said it only took fifteen minutes for eight feet of water to fill his basement.

“It was just absolutely violent. It looked like a four-foot garden hose was in that window,” he said.

He said he hasn’t had time to emotionally process the loss and damages, however the community’s support has helped him get through the last 24 hours.

“I just want to say thanks to the community. They made this cleanup possible so without them we couldn’t have done it,” said Cox.