Utah members answering calls to assist in flooded areas
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There was a time, more than a century ago, when a call for emergency help was issued to members over the pulpit. Recall President Brigham Young dispatching able-bodied men to rescue the jeopardized members of the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies. Today, such calls for help are generally transmitted via e-mails and text messages.
A mass e-mail, for example, was recently sent out to the members of a Salt Lake City-area single adult ward. In that case, strong and willing men and women were being asked to help fill sandbags that local communities could use to prevent flooding along local swollen rivers and waterways.
It was not an unexpected call. Much of Utah experienced a long, wet winter with prolonged, heavy snowfall. Snowpack in some regions hit depths five times their normal levels. Such accumulations have posed major flood concerns with the arrival of summer temperatures and, with it, heavy snowmelt and runoff. Seven Utah counties declared a state of emergency even as floodwatchers kept anxious eyes on fluctuating waterways and riverbanks.
At press time, most Utah communities had escaped major damage. Still, members have helped wherever they've been asked.
"The members have been wonderful — they are responding as they always do," said Gary Winters, the Church's welfare director for the Utah areas. "I think it's in our DNA."
Brother Winters said no Church properties have been damaged by flooding. Member-owned properties have also fared reasonably well, with no reports of any major household damages.
Salt Lake County recently requested assistance filling sandbags, and members responded in force. Some 300 members reported to the parking lot of a Midvale, Utah, shopping center and filled thousands of sandbags. Others have gone to Salt Lake County facilities to fill sandbags.
Dozens of members were also being used each day in the Ogden area to provide flood prevention efforts along the fast-moving Weber River. The Church has also provided sandbags to communities in northern Utah who needed additional bags.
Several members in Cache County's Providence community have seen their homes and property threatened by the volatile Spring Creek.
As bishop of the Logan 19th Young Single Adult Ward, Bishop Ted Ereksen is accustomed to helping others. But over the past week, the bishop has been the beneficiary of service. A wall of sandbags was all that separated his home and the waters of Spring Creek. The Ereksens suffered some damage to the landscaping around their home, but their house has, to date, escaped the rising waters.
"I've just been amazed by the response," said Bishop Ereksen, choking back emotion. Local members, including dozens of young single adult members from the Logan Utah YSA 3rd Stake, have spent countless hours filling and moving sandbags around the Ereksen property and anchoring his trees. Others have helped Providence build up their inventory of sandbags to be on hand for future flooding.
Several texts went out requesting help. Some have been sent in the early morning hours. But the response was always the same as members and their friends showed up in force to help. "A lot of family home evening groups have just dropped whatever they were doing and helped."
Relief Society sisters have also arrived to clean the Ereksen home and take care of other household duties as the family focused on pressing matters outside.
Meanwhile, state water experts were calling the coming days flood "crunch time" as high temperatures continue to bring snowmelt from the high mountains.
National Weather Service hydrologist Brian McInerney told the Deseret News that while much of the state has experienced flooding, major damage has not resulted because June stayed cool in the early weeks and temperatures did not spike until later in the month.
"It was a race," he said. "Either we run out of snow before the heat gets here, or was the heat going to get here before we ran out of snow. ... The heat got here after we melted most of the snow."
Brother Winters added "we're hopeful that the peak [concerns] have passed."
