The Beaver County Sheriff’s Office in Utah issued a mandatory evacuation order for 180 homes in the Grove area where houses sit at the foot of Beaver Canyon and the Beaver River.
Residents at the base of Beaver Canyon were ordered to relocate because rainfall caused flooding to run entirely off the mountain and directly toward their homes.
Up to 1.5 inches of rain fell over the majority of Beaver Canyon area basins on July 19.
The NWS issued its flash flood emergency alert on July 19.
“When it rains up on the mountain, it's covered in ash and soot and the water doesn't absorb into the ground like it would when you have grass or trees there so it just runs off the mountain,” Beaver City recorder Meranda Martin told NTD on July 20. “So, it literally could be like less than an inch of water and it will run off the mountain.”
The mountain is covered in soot and ash due to a wildfire that ignited there in June.
Trees and grass were burned, and vegetation was stripped away.
“Our focus right now is our culinary water and getting that up and going and making it safe so people can drink it,” Martin said.
The tap water is contaminated by the runoff, according to a Beaver City Facebook post advising residents not to drink the tap water.
Beaver City is a travel hub located midway between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as Los Angeles, California, and Denver, Colorado.
The American Red Cross is currently managing an evacuation center that has been established at Beaver High School.
“There's been several elderly couples that haven't been able to sleep on cots so they've gotten them hotels and stuff like that,” Martin said.
The city council is expected to declare a state of emergency this week.
“We did with the fire and we intend to do one with the flooding,” Martin added. “A lot of people have family that they're turning to or friends so they're staying with them.”