Virgin Valley Floods was the subject of the presentation by Mary Phalor, museum coordinator of Virgin Valley Heritage Museum, at the Mesquite Library last month on Saturday, Feb. 21. She told of the many floods of the Virgin River, from 1880, when Erastus Snow and the settlers abandoned Mesquite Flats because of floods, to 2010. Travis Anderson, director of Public Works for the City of Mesquite, was an invited guest who shared information about the planning and implementation to prevent flooding in Town Wash, Abbott Wash and Pulsipher Wash on Falcon Ridge Parkway.

Phalor explained the many reasons for flooding in the area. “The Virgin Valley is very prone to sudden thunderstorms, and because of the many washes, there are massive runoffs. The soil in the desert has poor absorption. The Santa Clara River and the Beaver Dam Wash flow into the Virgin River and can create a rapid rise in water levels. Rain in Zion Canyon, along with snow melt, can dump massive amounts of water into the Virgin River. Another event that caused the river to rise suddenly was the failure of the Quail Creek Dam near Hurricane that sent a raging wall of water down the river — 25,000-acre feet of water.” Flood waters reached both sides of the river, washed out the banks of the river in Littlefield and covered fields in Bunkerville.

The presentation started with the 1891 flood, which wiped out crops and fields. Dudley Leavitt of Bunkerville had looked to Mesquite Flats, hoping to farm more land, but the dam they constructed failed. Peter Iverson of Littlefield said the water ran through his house and took the cattle and other animals. Phalan told the story of Sammuel Reber, Jr. “He lost everything in the 1910 flood — his crops, livestock and almost his house. He put the house on a raft and floated it down the Virgin River to Mesquite Flats, where he started his grape and pomegranate orchards.”

In 1929, the Harlow Dam Project at the end of the Virgin River Gorge was hit by a wall of water and the dam was destroyed. The half-finished dam was 85 feet high at the time of the flood. The whole valley was flooded, and the construction workers left in the night to avoid paying their bills of $15,000 or more for feed for the animals used to haul rock and move dirt.

In 1932, when the floods came, citizens watched as the 1921 bridge over the river was wiped out by the flood waters. The wooden bridge at the Riverside Truck Stop was damaged beyond repair. This flood also affected the construction of the Hoover Dam as the flood waters emptied into the Colorado River. Then, two years later, with the flood of 1934, teamsters moved old cars along the banks to prevent the loss of farmland along the banks of the river.

Homes were swept into the raging Santa Clara River at the confluence of the Virgin in 2005. This flood also took out the bridge at the Beaver Dam Wash, closing Highway 91 and sending mobile homes down the river.

The flooding was repeated again in 2010 in the Old Mill area on Cottonwood, Grayce and Sage Way. Some of the streets were impassable, and John Zarate and others, using an old fishing boat, rowed down the street to rescue some residents stranded in their homes. Many homes were damaged, and it took months to clean the homes and belongings and make repairs.

Anderson shared information about what is being done by the city to mitigate the problems. “In the past, housing projects did not take into consideration the possibility of floods. Mesa Boulevard always flooded, but with master planning and new directives, floods can be minimized. The city is proactive in planning and working with builders,” Anderson said. “The town wash is a layered watershed with two to three times more water than the others. When the homes and apartments were built north of the freeway, there was not an emphasis on storm drains.”

Jim Wilson was the Public Works director when the detention basin at the town wash was built, and he has been honored for his planning and foresight with a plaque at the site and another at City Hall. Anderson explained, “In 2017, 100,00 cubic yards of silt flowed into the basin that would have washed out the developments. We still have maintenance programs to move out the sediment. The basin was designed for peak maximum floods.”

Anderson invited the audience to go see the basin, explaining, “The basin can be viewed from the end of Palmer Lane north of the Oasis Golf driving range. There is parking and you can walk to the basin.”

“The city received grant money from the regional flood control in the amount of $15 million. Some of this has been used to construct storm drains and a culvert system that have been put in place that drain directly into the Virgin River,” Anderson stated.

The next phase is the Virgin River levy, which will cost about $20 million. That takes time working with the government entities and the state of Arizona. Another project the city will look at is the Chaparral area and potential flooding there.