Less than a month after a rainstorm sent thousands of tons of mud barreling into east Provo neighborhoods — displacing multiple Latter-day Saint congregations from their chapel — another microburst Monday brought more gunk and debris from the scarred hillside.
This time, though, the city was ready.
Gordon Haight, Provo’s public works director, confirmed that Monday’s runoff of mud and water was contained to roads.
“The debris flow has pretty much subsided, and it’s just the cleanup,” Haight said. “Nothing went onto private property, so everything was kept to the public streets.”
Such was not the case Aug. 27, when more than a half-inch of rain fell in 30 minutes, unleashing 23,000 tons of debris from Buckley Draw. Most of the homes downhill were spared, but a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sustained major damage.
Since then, four congregations have been meeting elsewhere while crews clean up and make repairs to the building.
The initial mudslide struck after a fire ignited in Buckley Draw on Aug. 17. The blaze left a burn scar, which led to loosened soil and a higher chance of debris runoff from the mountain.
The city updated safeguards to protect the properties below, but water and debris in the Aug. 27 storm overwhelmed those barriers, including a berm wall embedded in the mountainside.
Since then, city crews, residents and volunteers have been cleaning the streets and drains.
According to an Instagram post from Provo, none of the homes in the area was damaged Monday, thanks to barriers placed by the city earlier in the week.
Robin Roberts, a resident and the owner of Dynamic Collision Repair, said about 3 inches of mud and water pushed against the back door of his business in the initial slide. After Monday’s runoff, he said, the water was already “draining better.”
“This time, we were prepared,” Roberts said. “They actually put barriers up above the cul-de-sac… just in case the mud came off that construction site again.”
The city announced that Slate Canyon Drive and Nevada Avenue will be closed as crews clear the area and the water recedes.
