East SLC News

SANDY — A neighborhood in Sandy is on high alert as temperatures continue to rise, along with the potential for flooding.

Homeowners along Little Willow Creek are gearing up with sandbags, but one resident is taking it a step further to protect his home.

"I'm just tired of doing the muscle wall sandbags," Paul Swenson said. "Finally this year, I built a permanent wall."

The Sandy City homeowner has lived at that residence for nearly 20 years, and said unfortunately, he has dealt with floodwaters on his property in the past.

"When they designed this home, I don't think they anticipated some of the snowfalls we've had," Swenson said. "It has been about an inch from the top of that from being overwhelmed. As soon as it gets any fuller than that, it'll start backing up onto our properties."

This weekend, instead of sandbagging along his property, he built a 44-inch wall in his backyard.

"It will take whatever water hits and deflect it and carry it up to the road. That's the plan," he said. "I'd rather spend the money on something else, but once you get flooding into your house, it's hard to recover from that ever."

Swenson is hopeful the unconventional wall will keep water flowing away from him property this spring.

"Nothing is 100% guaranteed, but I'm pretty sure we won't have an issue this year," he said.

Original source can be found here.