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MIDVALE — The entire bottom level of one of the buildings at the Calaveras apartment complex was completely flooded due to Monday’s storm that hit the Salt Lake City area.
Residents say most of the water came in after stormwater trapped in the window wells overflowed into their units.
Now, they're stuck cleaning up and many of them say they want to move out.
“It looked like it hit everybody on this lower floor,” said Fallon Rasmussen, a resident of the apartments. "It was just a nightmare. People pulling their stuff out, stuff was soaked, there was water in there.”
One inch of wall-to-wall water entered Rasmussen's lower-level apartment. She said most of her stuff is ruined.
“The carpet is ruined, our mattress is ruined,” Rasmussen said. “Flooding from the windows, the front walls and everything. It was everywhere.”
Across the hall, Tyler Fletcher said the water coming in from his window was like a water hose, spewing eight inches of water inside.
“Yesterday, we could have started charging people to swim in our apartment, basically,” Fletcher said.
Bowls and buckets were still outside Fletcher’s window from his family trying to stop the rain from pouring in.
“We had four people trying (to help) but there was more water coming in than we were getting out,” Fletcher said.
More than 50 residents in 16 units were dealing with the storm’s aftermath. Some of them are trying to wait out the messy clean up.
Others say it's time to find a new place to live.
“My mom is leaving. She's actually been looking for houses all day,” Fletcher said.
“It’s just basically find somewhere else to live at this point,” Rasmussen said.
The apartment manager told KSL the old drains just couldn't keep up with the amount of water. Prior to the storm, the building was undergoing upgrades. The manager said they are in the process of replacing the old drains and making other upgrades.
Contributing: Xoel Cardenas
