More Water Than '83

Some of you remember the spring of 1983 in northern Utah. I am one of those people.

Many people had memories of the flooding but for me, I won't forget the day of the Farmington Mudslides. My friend and I had just gone for a run (if I remember correctly...) and we were hanging out at Rose Acre Place (more info here) when my friend's older sister ran into his room and told us to get out of the house. Rose Acre Place sits right by a river and we thought the river was cresting. Had it done that, the house could have been destroyed.

The river wasn't the problem. The problem occurred in another, smaller canyon, Rudd Canyon, and the problem wasn't a cresting river, but a river of mud.

After my friend's sister told us to leave, I hoped on my bike and rode home. By the time I got to the base of our hill, I looked up 1st East and saw people running down the road and helicopters flying overhead. When I got home I turned on the TV and saw the devastation of the mudslide. Several homes of people I knew were gone, some displaced off their foundations and at least one rock home was completely destroyed (in the picture you can see a home where my sister actually lived for a short time years after the flood--it's the home with the round spot near the roof).

Yesterday I heard on the news that there's more water in the mountains right now than there was during the same time of year in 1983. I think we're going to have a very interesting runoff season...