BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A community meeting is scheduled tonight in Beaver to discuss flood mitigation efforts because of the Cottonwood Fire.
The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at Beaver High School. The Beaver County Sheriff’s Office also posted that they have sandbags and sand available at the Beaver City Rodeo Grounds.
“We’re praying for sprinkles right now. We’re not praying for rain,” Beaver County Commissioner Tammy Pearson said.
More than 97,000 acres have burned, which means more than 97,000 acres of ash and debris are on the mountains.
“The whole mountain itself, we’re really nervous now with the fire because we have been here long enough to know that there’s going to be flooding now. So, we’re worried about flood mitigation now, the watershed in general. This fire is the entire shed. And it comes out one canyon, through the Beaver River,” Pearson said.
Beaver County Commissioner Tammy Pearson says since the Cottonwood fire started over two and a half weeks ago officials in Beaver County have been working ahead.
Officials said they’re prepared to work alongside their partners at the state, local and federal levels this weekend to help with flood mitigation efforts.
“We have a huge sandbag effort. We have several, at least 140-some-odd homes and condos and buildings spared originally. We don’t want flood damage in there,” Pearson added.
Pearson said the Beaver River has already been cleared and crews are already loading up fallen timber, rocks, and other debris into trucks to get them out of the canyon.
Dache Derbridge with the Beaver, Iron and Garfield Chamber of Commerce said she’s seen the efforts from community members first hand.
“They’re working on the springs and working on the water so that Beaver can have water. We need to have that water so we can rebuild,” Derbridge said.
The community is more than ready to help get their mountains back.
“We all call it our mountain. I live at the base of the mountain; we backpack in, we four-wheel in, and ride horses up to Blue Lake. It’s just our mountain,” Derbidge said.
