CENTRAL UTAH -- Floodwaters tore through central Utah Wednesday night, and now dozens of homes are damaged.
Residents did all they could to stop water from going into their homes. Trenches were made to divert the flooding, but yards, basements and roads were still covered in water and mud.
"It was overwhelming," said Gunnison resident Andy Hill. "I was scared to be honest. It was one of those times where you couldn't do anything. I just sat there. I'm sure it was only seconds, but it just felt like eternity."
Hill said he watched water and mud flow down the hillside behind his house into his yard and basement.
"I've lived in the Gunnison area for a long time and I've never seen anything like this before," he said. "There was just so much water that happened all at once. It just came and it was here."
Police and neighbors worked to divert the water from the Hill's home.
"Luckily we had one of our neighbors come up and do some trenches," Hill said.
Another house just across from the Hill's also sustained flooding, but the homeowners were out of town. Neighbors came together to save what they could.
"There was mud and two inches of water all over to this wall and we had to come here and pull up all the carpets and all of the pad and pack it out the windows," said Scott Reid, who is a resident of Gunnison who helped divert the flood from going into homes.
Reid and other neighbors worked for hours to clear the basement of the home.
"It was unbelievable: the water that was coming down the road, there were rivers on both sides of the road, just everywhere in town, every pit was clear full of water," Reid said.
Residents are grateful no one was hurt and say this is a good reminder to be prepared for the unexpected.
"I know a lot of people here in the valley that we don't expect this kind of stuff," Hill said. "You hear about it happening in Texas and the Midwest and everywhere else--but this just doesn't happen here."
Residents hope the trenches and sandbags they've laid down will prevent any more homes from flooding.
