| OCR Text |
Show Floods harmful To Farms, Damage Water Line The rains came, but too late. That is the opinion of livestock men of Cedar City and forest officials of-ficials who have been contacted in regard to the drought disaster measures that have been taken during the past week in Iron county. The rain that was described as "coming down in buckets" near Cedar Breaks in the late evening Tuesday, July 15, did actually ac-tually more harm than good according ac-cording to reports of the flood that came down coal creek in Cedar canyon. These floods, bringing down huge boulders anrl logs tore out a water line at Martin's flat in Cedar canyon, came near overflowing over-flowing the banks near the bridge on Highway 91 and carried car-ried red clay from the Breaks onto farms in Cedar valley, completely com-pletely covering several acres of rich farm land. Other damage by the flood was the closing of the diversion point for the south field irrigation company and as a result eliminating, at least for a time, irrigation water for Cedar City proper. Wednesday another flood came down coal creek with the water coming from the southern part of the mountain and not so much from the Breaks area. This flood although not as forceful as the Tuesday evening spectacle was more destructive in the eyes of Cedar City officials. These wat-0"s, wat-0"s, coming from the southern slopes, severed the Cedar City water main in Cedar canyon in two places. The main water line was broken at the brdige near Martin's flat and then again about a quarter of a mile closer to the city. Cedar City water department de-partment employees worked into the late hours Wednesday evening eve-ning to repair one break in the line and were out early this morning, Thursday, attempting to repair the second break. From the standpoint of the rains in regard to the drought conditions that have prevailed during the winter and spring months of this year, the opinion is that regardless of how much rain we get it is too late to be of much advantage to us. According to Forest Supervisor Albert Albertson of the Dixie National Na-tional Forest, the light snowfall during the winter months and the lack of moisture in the spring and early summer months has practically eliminated feed on the mountain ranges. It is estimated esti-mated that this year was probably prob-ably I'y', below normal owing ow-ing to the lack of water in the early growing months on the mountains. Mr. Albertson paralleled paral-leled the situation to a sick person, per-son, stating that someone who has been sick to the point of being in a wheel chair does not all of a sudden get up and perform per-form as he did before the sickness sick-ness begun. The forests in a sense are sick and the summer is too far gone for them to recover re-cover completely this season. Mr. Albertson did state that the present pres-ent rains, especially if they continue, con-tinue, will be of most value to next season's growth. According to Manager Thomas Thorsen of Cedar City, the Cam-age Cam-age to the water mains in the canyon, between the two floods, would amount to approximately $1,000. This would include, of course, a complete check of the line which has been weakened by the floods in several points as well as the immediate repair and materials that would be needed on the water main. |
