ST. GEORGE, Utah - Zion National Park and other areas of southern Utah along the Virgin River are under states of emergency. Saint George residents are experiencing floods and road closures as a result of steady rain.
As a once small creek through a St. George park turns into fast-moving rapids, Cliff View Senior Living community employee Haylee Williams worries about how she'll care for the community's residents if the river continues to take out roads.
"We'd be stuck here for days taking care of 75 residents, and there are only four of us working at night," she said.
Excavation crews worked through the night along Indian Hills Drive to clear the river of debris that caused additional flooding. St George area officials say, so far, they have avoided a larger disaster.
"We had a scare earlier that we received reports that a dam was about to fail up in the Springdale area and would release, had the potential to release acre feet of water suddenly into the already swollen flooding Virgin river, which would have created a potentially disastrous situation for communities downstream," said Washington County Commissioner Jim Eardley. "We've since received information from reliable sources that the failure of that dam is not imminent, that it is considered safe."
Williams, meanwhile, is taking precautions. "We're prepared. If I have to, and we're stuck here, I'm more than willing to make sure I break into the kitchen and make sure these residents get fed. You do what you have to do," she said.
Most of the water flows down the Virgin River, through Mesquite and toward Overton and the rest of Clark County. The rivers appear to have crested, but any more rain could put that in jeopardy.
