The rains let up late Thursday and early Friday, and finally, Cache County Emergency Manager Rick Williams and the region’s public safety crews got a good night’s sleep.
Two days of heavy valley rain and mountain snowfall left the northern Utah county water-logged and homes from Paradise to Mendon, Wellsville and Richfield were inundated. The precipitation, falling on frozen, already saturated soil, produced "sheet flooding" that kept Cache residents and emergency workers busy into Thursday night.
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At 9:30 p.m. Thursday, crews breached the Hyrum-Mendon irrigation canal to relieve the pressure. Then, just as public safety officials were considering breaching more clogged and overflowing canals, the heavens relented.
"We ended up having a pretty good night. After 11 p.m. [Thursday] the rain finally let up. We had no additional flooding calls, other than a few requests for sandbags from residents," Williams said Friday. "I actually got a pretty good night’s sleep.
"Today, things are looking pretty good. The sun is shining and we’re gathering information on the extent of damage, and then bracing for more rain (on Saturday)," he added.
About 40 homes experienced flooding countywide, five of them sustaining "heavy damage," he said, but an unknown number of other homeowners — perhaps dozens — are thought to have dealt with basement flooding on their own. Williams said county emergency officials likely would be compiling data on the extent of the flooding over the next several days.
At mid-day Friday, State Route 23 remained closed between Mendon and Wellsville due to water on the roadway, and officials in North Logan and North Park had restricted travel on some east bench area streets.
Weber County also saw minor flooding in the Ogden valley Friday morning. Sheriff’s Lt. Mark Lowther said at least seven homes have been affected with minor flooding in the Liberty and Eden area of the upper Ogden valley.
Lowther said one of the homes had a significant amount of water in the basement.
The rain falling on top of the snow and having now where to drain leads to the flooding, Lowther said, which is sort of a phenomenon because it happens in different areas each time.
"These houses have never flooded before and they are not the same (ones that flooded) as last year," Lowther said.
While the crises in Cache and Weber counties appeared to have subsided Friday, the danger of potentially deadly mountain snow slides increased. The slopes around Logan and Ogden rated "extreme" risk grades for dangerous avalanches. The Utah Avalanche Center also ranked the Salt Lake City, Provo and western Uintas areas at "high" risk, while the mountains around southeastern Utah’s Moab were given a "moderate" risk rating.
Much of southern half of Utah was under a high wind watch through Saturday night. NWS forecasters said the areas to be most affected by winds of 30-40 mph and gusts topping 60 mph would be the valleys of central and southern Utah. The winds were expected to grow in intensity Saturday evening ahead of a cold front.
Air quality, meanwhile, was ranked as "green" or healthy statewide, according to the Utah Division of Environmental Quality.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service predicted a brief drying trend — but a winter storm warning was to kick in once more Friday night extending into Sunday morning for the Wasatch Mountains north and south of Interstate 80, as well as the western Uintas. Forecasters were predicting 2-4 inches of snow and the resumption of localized rain in the valleys, and 1-2 feet of new snow for the mountains.
What snow did fall in the lower elevations was expected to melt rather quickly with well above-freezing daytime temperatures expected. Salt Lake City’s high for Saturday was pegged at 47 degrees, in the wake of a 49 Friday; Ogden looked for 43 and 47 degrees, respectively; Provo 46 and 51; Logan 42s; Wendover 43 and 48; Duchesne 40 and 43; Cedar City 48 and 53; St. George 60 and 57; and Moab 51 and 55 degrees.
— Reporter Cimaron Neugebauer contributed to this story
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