Roughly half of the damages to homes and other structures caused by a pair of brief but violent storms on June 21 and again six days later could be attributed to high winds rather than floods, according to City of Moab Community Development Director Michael Black.
Black offered an update on the storms at the June 9 Moab City Council meeting, telling councilors and Mayor Joette Langianese that the storms, while destructive, did not impact the structural integrity of most structures in town — to the best of his knowledge. Sediment and debris fanned out from Mill Creek and onto private and public property, and entered homes in some instances, but it doesn’t look like any structures were unmoored from their foundations.
Black did say the city wants to be made aware of impacts.
In the meantime, bank stabilization along Mill Creek is underway and sidewalks on the parkway are “cantilevered,” meaning they are unsupported on one end. More erosion has occurred along bridge abutments and at least two bridges have been removed.
Overall, the prognosis is alarming. “This is going to be a big fix,” said Black. “And it’s going to take a lot of engineering.”
An emergency contract has been signed with a firm that’s working to clean up the parkway as the city’s Public Works staff has to focus on surface streets, which were also impacted by the storms.
Black said much of the sediment pushed out by the storms will be “moved around,” but much of it will be removed. “We’re trying to the [the parkway] back open.”
Black said the bridge at 300 South “needs to be evaluated” and other areas in Moab also need to be studied to determine what, exactly, needs to be done before the city sends out requests for proposals to make improvements. Rather than do what’s always been done, Black said the city will look for analyses of alternative fixes and their estimated costs.
Clearly, the area that saw the worst flooding are along the parkway between 100 West and 500 West. “This is a popular area for active transportation,” said Black. “We need a master plan for that area. There’s a lot of damage down there with sediment spread out along the entire parkway.”
According to Black, some of that sediment oozed into the 100-year floodplain, according to the Flood Insurance Rate Map put out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “We need to identify steps to restore the floodway. It leaves the creek and fans out wide down there.”
Black indicated a sense of urgency was in play as the parkway between 100 and 500 West is a natural resource that people enjoy. “It’s inaccessible now,” he said. “Two [foot] bridges have been taken down. They’re not working the way they’re supposed to.”
(Doug McMurdo | The Times-Independent) Two foot bridges crossing Mill Creek have been removed after they failed “to do what they’re supposed to do” in recent flood events.
“This is going to be a process,” said Black, adding he and Mark Jolissaint, city engineering, are looking into requests for proposals to create a comprehensive plan. The goal, he said, it to get the public back down there. The parkway west of 500 West sustained “a lot of damage” to side walls. “We’re going to be assessing damage down there for quite a while.”
“At some point we have to decide what we want Mill Creek to handle,” said City Councilor Jason Taylor. “Is it 5,000 CFS [cubic feet per second] or 10,000?”
Black said the initial goal is to work with FEMA to get the floodway back. “We need to look at all the alternatives.”
The question of the day also came from Taylor, who asked Black if the work would be city or federally funded. Black said he was sure there would be “some funding sources” available, but the answer might not be realized until later. “We don’t even know the scope of what needs to be looked at. This is a massive undertaking.”
Black in response to a question from Councilor Kaitlin Myers said the city and Grand County will work together to address flooding and the long-term funding that will be required. “We’ll make sure we’re combining our resources,” he said.
Councilor Luke Wojciechowski said constituents have asked hm why the city can’t simply remove debris from Mill Creek. In addition to significant permitting required from myriad agencies, Black said work done at one place could affect property downstream. “We can’t dredge the creek,” he said. “We would be in a lot of trouble.”
“I think it’s important to remember we never know where the next storm’s going to hit,” Langianese said. “We fix one thing and it hits somewhere else.”
(Doug McMurdo | The Times Independent)A heavy equipment operator clears tons of debris from under the Main Street Bridge over Mill Creek on Wednesday, July 11.