Severe storms moved through parts of Carbon County, Utah, on Wednesday night, bringing Tornado in Utah conditions that left East Carbon and Sunnyside residents checking damage on Thursday. Quarter-sized hail, heavy rain, strong winds and flooding hit several communities, and some homes were left with broken screens, roof leaks and water inside.
Jessica Olsen, an East Carbon resident, said the storm brought large hail, lightning and thunder and took out the screens at her home. “Good size hail, lightning, thundering. It took our screens out,” she said.
East Carbon and Sunnyside damage
Barbara Montgomery said the storm in Sunnyside was unlike anything she had experienced before. “It was crazy. I had never experienced that kind of hail coming down,” she said. By Thursday, she said part of her yard appeared to be sloping after the storm, and she linked the flooding to a power outage that compounded the disruption. “On top of everything else, the power went out,” she said. “I walked out and I can see where our yard is now going to, like, slope down,”
The damage spread beyond individual homes. Residents said a gully near several homes overflowed and damaged nearby infrastructure, while a creek that is typically dry filled with water and spilled into surrounding streets. That shift from dry channels to moving water is what turned a storm into a cleanup problem across East Carbon and Sunnyside.
Xander Nelson in East Carbon
Xander Nelson described the hail as a “nonstop percussion.” He said a creek near his home is normally bone dry, but during Wednesday’s storm it quickly filled with rushing water. “We heard a crash and saw a tree barreling down the creek,” he said.
Nelson also said water leaked through skylights and hail got inside his home. “It was leaking straight through the skylights. We had hail coming through. It was almost a carpet of hail,” he said. Residents in East Carbon and Sunnyside were still checking what needed repair on Thursday after the storm knocked out power, damaged property and sent water through places that are usually dry.
Carbon County Wednesday
Communities across the area, including Huntington, Wellington, East Carbon and Sunnyside, saw intense weather Wednesday night. The immediate question for residents is how much repair work the storm will require after the hail, flooding and power loss hit multiple communities at once. How much total damage the storms caused across Carbon County was not stated.
