More Flood Stories from BYU 03-04

I have subscribed to a "Google Alert" which sends me a daily email of any news stories regarding The Santa Clara River Floods. It has really been helpful in keeping track of what is going on with the aftermath of the flooding. You can set up a Google Alert for any topic you want. If I were a real-live newspaper reporter, I would make use of this service (which is free) for conducting my research. But you can use it for other purposes too, such as: following your favorite sports team, movie star, monitoring the activities of a politician, or articles concerning an upcoming special event. You can set up a Google Alert Here.

With that in mind, today I got my Google Alert email on the Santa Clara River Floods, and I found a whole raft of human interest stories on the flood from BYU Newsnet. I thought I would link to them here, since most of those reading this site probably do not peruse BYU Newsnet on a daily basis. However the stories are interesting and I thought you might want to take a look at them. With all of these stories the last couple of days, I think BYU must have sent a whole journalism class down there this week!

The first story is about a farmer, named Orwin Gubler. Orwin has farmed in the St. George area since 1952. In January, he lost 8 acres of his land to the floods. Yet, he is determined to get back to work, and plow and re-seed his fields.

The second story is about those who particpated in creating the Book and DVD that is being used as part of the fundraising project for flood victims. It features Lon Henderson, Lyman Hafen, and others. Although a minimum donation of $35.00 is required to receive the Book and DVD, the average contribution has been $100.00.

The third story is about Alan Blackburn, who is the manager of the Zion Harley-Davidson Shop. His business has donated $5,000 toward flood relief, and he has organized other fundraisers, including one tomorrow (3/5/05) with the local Harley Riders Association.

The fourth story describes the situation in Gunlock, Utah. Their situation is a little different because they are more isolated (40 miles away from St. George) and the bridges have been washed out, which at times has isolated them from the rest of the world. A temporary bridge was in place, but even that was washed out over President's day weekend. Also the issue of governmental interfereance with regard to dredging the stream channel is mentioned here. Many of the residents feel that meddling from the federal governmant over riparian (river) habitat, which precluded them from dredging the river channel, contributed to the severity of the flooding in their area.