Damage to Provo homes and an LDS chapel from a mudslide could have been avoided, residents say

Provo • Fire, water and mud have plagued a neighborhood along Provo’s east bench in a biblical-like siege that has lasted for weeks.

The saga began Aug. 17 when flames erupted in Buckley Draw above the Provost South neighborhood. Crews contained the blaze, but an Aug. 27 microburst of rain descended upon the burn scar it left behind, spawning a mudslide.

Thousands of tons of soaked earth and debris slid down the mountain slope, over a construction site and into a meetinghouse owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The building, 1625 S. Slate Canyon Drive, suffered significant damage, forcing four congregations to relocate to other chapels.

Ashley Rayback, the elected neighborhood representative, said she feels like a nomad having to attend religious services elsewhere.

“It’s really upsetting to not have our church that we go to,” Rayback said. “We’ve been displaced.”

Three Latter-day Saint wards from the Provo Utah Stake, a regional cluster of congregations, and one ward from a Tongan stake, had to find temporary homes.

Church spokesperson Lester Rojas said full remediation of the building is expected to take four to six months.

Amid all this fallout from the fire, Rayback and other residents say much of the damage and displacement could have been avoided.

Rezoning and development

On May 22, 2024, a joint application from Anderson Development and Provo’s Development Services requested a rezone of the Provost South neighborhood. The action would remove a patch of land, east of the church and below Buckley Draw, from the city’s Critical Hillside Overlay Zone and clear the way to build 110 homes.

These overlay zones bring higher development standards to protect the residents and land during and after construction from hazards sometimes associated with building and living in hillside areas.

The developer got its wish, although the area was historically prone to mudslides and water runoff.

According to a planning commission meeting in 2024, when Provo sold the lot, the city warned Anderson Development to be mindful of possible debris flow coming from Buckley Draw.

A persistent problem

The new development was hardly the first to raise concerns.

As far back as 2003, the city built a berm wall (a raised mound of earth used to steer water and other runoff away from homes) below Buckley Draw. This barrier was designed to channel runoff to nonresidential areas, including diverting it to the vacant property purchased by Anderson Development.

Aware of this issue, Anderson Development proposed funneling any debris flow into Bicentennial Park instead.

Rayback said she and her neighbors worried about the safety of this development and spoke to the builders, city officials and City Council members.

She said barriers originally had been placed at the edge of the lot to protect against potential hazards but added that they were removed during construction.

Gordon Haight, Provo’s public works director, said the developer agreed to extend the berm north by 1,200 feet to shield the properties below.

More than a year later, residents say, the developer removed the fences and concrete barriers, without lengthening the berm.

Anderson Development did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

Fears from the fire

After the August fire, Bryan Hopkins, president of the affected Provo Utah Stake and a soil scientist at Brigham Young University, grew concerned about the burn damage to the mountain.

In the 10 days between the blaze and the mudslide, he took photos and videos, posted them on social media and shared them with the city.

Rayback said she and other residents sent messages of their own about their worries.

Mayor Michelle Kaufusi later interviewed Haight in an Instagram reel, asking him what the city was doing to prepare for storms.

In the video, Kaufusi expressed that the city was prepared, and Haight assured that the Buckley Draw debris flow channel had been tested and modified, and remained functional.

Then came the rain.

According to city officials, nearly an inch of rain fell in 30 minutes over the burn scar. (Provo’s average annual precipitation is under 20 inches).

Haight said while the berm did keep most of the debris away from homes, it was overpowered by the storm’s severity.

“The vast majority of storms are going to be within what our system can handle,” Haight said. “Because the storm was so intense, it pushed through all the improvements, and it went and hit the LDS church and flooded several rooms.”

Hopkins said his concern was that the extended berm wasn’t in place.

“We wouldn’t have had a mudslide if not for the fire,” said Hopkins, speaking in his capacity as a scientist. “However, we would not have mud in the church if the berm extension had been built” before the removal of the barriers meant to prevent “this very thing.”

Haight agreed.

“The developer had the responsibility to do it. That was part of their development. They just barely started it,” he said. “That could have saved everything, but they hadn’t had that installed yet.”

A Sept. 22 microburst sent more water and gunk barreling down from the scarred hillside. This time, however, the city had put up concrete barriers around homes and cul-de-sacs, steering the runoff to roads and allowing them to drain.

Even so, Hopkins cautioned, the neighborhood remains under threat.

“The berm [extension],” he said, “needs to be built ASAP.”

Note to readers • Dylan Eubank is a Report for America corps member covering faith in Utah County for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories. This story is available to Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.