SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah -- Heavy rains and even hail poured down on homes throughout Salt Lake County on Saturday, leaving some residents in Sandy under water.
“It just started coming in like a river,” said Angel Fitzgerald, who lives along 865 East 7985 South. She spent much of the evening pumping water out of her garage and throwing away damaged items.
Fitzgerald said: “It just came flooding in. We thought we could put down a towel or something, and it just wasn’t happening.”
Next door, her neighbor Kristi Gill was wading through the same problem.
“It’s frustrating,” she said.
The Gills are in the process of moving, and they had dozens of boxes packed with items in their garage.
“I had my husband trying to grab blankets to block the water from coming in, and really, you can’t do anything when there’s water just forcefully coming through your house,” Gill said.
Residents in the area said the storm drain system installed six years ago is not equipped to handle the heavy rains that sometimes hit the neighborhood. Sandy city officials surveying the damage said it is a concern they will be considering.
“We’ll look at how well the storm drain system did function, and then we’ll have to look and see what we can do to prevent this from occurring in the future,” Public Utilities Director Shane Pace said.
Pace cited the down-sloping driveways leading into the garages of some of the neighborhood’s older homes as part of the problem. He expected the city to pay for the cleanup process at Fitzgerald’s and Gill’s homes.
A risk management officer was touring several other flooded homes in nearby neighborhoods Saturday night, but it was unclear if the storm drain system was to blame for any damage.
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