(KCPW News) A wet holiday weekend mixed with warmer temperatures forecasted for this week is keeping Utah on high alert for flooding. Seven Utah counties are under flood warnings and Joe Dougherty with the Utah Division of Emergency Management says Morgan, Weber and Sevier counties have already made emergency declarations to the state.
“These counties can request aid from the state. If we need to move track hoes in to help in to help with flooding issues, if we need to coordinate more sandbags, those kind of things can be coordinated at the state level,” said Dougherty. “Eventually if there is enough damage that we think that there will need to be help from the federal level, those emergency declarations have also started that process.”
Dougherty says the upcoming forecast predicting temperatures near 80 degrees is exactly what he and his colleagues do not want to see, especially after how much rain the state saw over the weekend.
“We need the snow in the mountains to freeze for a little while, let the rivers drain out, let the flooding go down, and then if we can have a gradual warming that would help alleviate any flooding potential,” he said. “The problem is we are so late in the year for the snowmelt to happen, we’re afraid we are going to see it all come down at once.”
Governor Gary Herbert is taking an aerial tour of Morgan and Weber Counties Tuesday morning to assess the flood damage so far.
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